Armenian government discusses Azerbaijan`s offer of prisoner exchange

ArmInfo.The Armenian government is discussing the proposal of Azerbaijan on the exchange of prisoners, spokesman for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Vladimir  Karapetyan, told reporters on September 19 after a cabinet meeting.

Earlier, official Baku came up with the idea of exchanging prisoners  on the principle of "all for all", proposing to exchange Armenian  citizens Arsen Baghdasaryan, Karen Ghazaryan and Zaven Karapetyan for  Azerbaijanis Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Gyuliyev, convicted in  Artsakh for a number of crimes, in particular for kidnapping and the  murder of a minor based on national hatred committed on the territory  of the Republic of Artsakh, as well as a civilian - Alvin Arif Oglu  Hibragimov, born in 1986. Armenia rejected this offer, noting that  those who committed serious crimes cannot be exchanged along with the  prisoners according to the above principle.

"I didn't speak personally with the prime minister, but we are up to  date and the issue is being discussed.  Given the subtleties of the  issue, we will announce the decision publicly when we are close to  it," Vladimir Karapetyan said.

Meanwhile, speaking at a press conference convened on this occasion  today, human rights activist and first Ombudsman of Armenia Larisa  Alaverdyan stated that Azerbaijan is trying to free its hands for  future crimes, namely to send saboteurs and to further kidnap people  of Armenian nationality from border villages.

As Alaverdyan noted, earlier it became known that Azerbaijan appealed  to the European Court of Human Rights regarding "the illegal  detention of two people in the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh". <I  think that today Azerbaijan announced its appeal to international  organizations, which means that they were defeated in the ECHR. The  cynicism of the appeal, apparently, was so obvious that the hope that  the ECHR, on the basis of humanitarian considerations and the  principles of human rights, could recognize these people as illegally  detained and hostages, did not materialize. According to her, there  is still a circumstance. <We know that this is not the first time  that people have arrived in Azerbaijan who live in the border  villages of Armenia and who have fallen into the territory of  Azerbaijan, under very strange circumstances. I have reason to say  that there is a systematic abduction of people from the border  villages of Armenia. It is in order to then make them as <material>,  sorry for the expressions, for sharing>, - said Larisa Alaverdyan.   To recall, in July 2018, a resident of the village of Berdavan,  Tavush region, Karen Ghazaryan, under unknown circumstances, ended up  in Azerbaijan, and on far-fetched charges, was sentenced by an  Azerbaijani court to 20 years in prison in February 2019. Arayik  Ghazaryan - a serviceman of Artsakh Autonomous Region, appeared on  the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan on August 12 under  unclear circumstances.

Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev as part of an armed group  illegally entered the territory of the Artsakh Republic. The members  of this criminal group committed a number of grave and especially  grave crimes, including the abduction and murder of 17-year-old Smbat  Tsakanyan, the killing of 43-year-old Sargis Abrahamyan and the grave  wounding of 37-year-old Karine Davtyan.