Acting  Foreign Minister of Armenia presented to the ECHR Chairman  the situation around Karen Ghazaryan, who was captured in Azerbaijan

ArmInfo. On a working visit  to Strasbourg, the Acting Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab  Mnatsakanyan met with Chairman of the ECHR Guido Raimondi.

The press service of the RA Foreign Ministry told ArmInfo that  Mnatsakanyan, noting the value of cooperation with the ECHR, stated  that multilateral platforms are especially important for small states  from the point of expression of sovereign equality, and today, when  this multilateral platform faces new challenges, promoting universal  interests is becoming increasingly relevant.

He stressed that this system for the protection of human rights is  exceptional and can only be truly effective in a functioning  democracy.

The parties discussed the prospects for deepening cooperation between  Armenia and the ECHR.

Mnatsakanyan spoke about the recent internal political processes in  Armenia, touched on the Armenian position and approaches to the  settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Representing the lawsuit against the citizen of the Republic of  Armenia Karen Ghazaryan, who turned out to be in the territory of  Azerbaijan under unexplained circumstances, Acting The Armenian  Foreign Minister condemned the involvement in the judicial process of  a person who has obvious health problems, which also violates  international humanitarian law. According to him, this farce is an  attempt to equate an innocent man with real killers.

Recall that July 15, Karen Ghazaryan was on the territory of  Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani side declared "preventing attempts at  sabotage penetration", as well as the capture of a soldier Karen  Ghazaryan (b.  1984). A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry  Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that Karen Ghazaryan does not serve and has  never served in the army. However, this did not prevent Azerbaijan  from declaring Ghazaryan a "saboteur" and starting a trial.

The trial started on November 6 in Ganja. Ghazaryan is accused of a  crime against life and health, a crime in the sphere of economic  activity, a crime against public safety, a crime against the  foundations of the constitutional system and security of the state, a  crime against management. The trial against Ghazaryan provoked  indignation of Ghazaryan's relatives. In this regard, on November  17-18, Ghazaryan's relatives, as well as his fellow villagers blocked  the road, demanding that the authorities return Karen Ghazaryan from  Azerbaijani captivity.