Armenian side receives no official proposal on exchange of captives: acting DM

The commission on exchange of captives between Armenia and Azerbaijan will soon resume its work, acting defense minister Davit Tonoyan told the reporters today. He said in this phase he will be coordinating the works of the commission.

“I have convened sittings few times. As far as we are in the so-called transition period and there were urgent issues to be solved, a decision has been made that the works of the commission will be headed by the minister,” Tonoyan said.

Tonoyan ruled out the information published by Interfax about Azerbaijan’s proposal on exchange of captives.

“No official proposal has been received. I have frankly said that I heard about it from media,” Tonoyan stressed.

Citing its source Interfax wrote that Baku has officially offered Yerevan to exchange captives with “all for all” principle.

As of now there are three Armenian citizens in Azerbaijan – Arsen Baghdasaryan, Karen Ghazaryan and Zaven Karapetyan. They are being considered saboteurs and have been accused of war crimes and sentenced to imprisonment.

In the Armenian side Azerbaijani saboteurs Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev are kept. They are sentenced to life and 22 years imprisonment by Karabakh court for illegally crossing the Karabakh state border in July 2014, spying, illegal possession of weaponry, kidnap and murder of a person.

Davit Tonoyan said they are not prisoners of war. Asked about possibility of discussion of their exchange, Tonoyan said, “If Armenia or Artsakh keep prisoners of war, the discussion is possible. But as of now there are no prisoners of war.”