Armenia returned Azerbaijani citizen without any pre-conditions: MFA spokesperson

Armenia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that Armenia stays committed to the international humanitarian right norms and to the assumed international commitments and carried out transfer of the Azerbaijani citizen Alvin Arif Oglu Ibrahimov to Azerbaijanin in collaboration with the International Committee of Red Cross.

The latter illegally crossed the Armenian border on March 16, 2019.

MFA reported that he was transferred to the ICRC delegation and representatives of Azerbaijani authorities on June 28. The MFA stressed that Armenia has carried out this humanitarian step without any pre-condition.

On the same day the Azerbaijani side handed Armenian citizen Zaven Karapetyan to the representatives of the ICRC Armenian delegation.

Karapetyan appeared on the Azerbaijani territory in yet unknown circumstances on June 20, 2017.

Asked by News.am whether it was an exchange in the sidelines of “all for all” principle, spokesperson of the MFA Anna Naghdalyan said, the process was not application of the “all for all” principle.

“It is not the matter of exchange as Armenia has stated from the very beginning that it returns Elvin Arif Oglu Ibrahimov without any pre-conditions based on the humanitarian considerations. This process has been carried out in close cooperation with the Armenian Office of the ICRC.
Ibrahimov has not committed any grave crime thus individual approach based on the humanitarian principle is applicable for him,” Naghdalyan said.

The spokesperson also said that Armenia also took the notice of Azerbaijan’s decision to release Armenia’s citizen Zaven Karapetyan who appeared in the Azerbaijani territory on June 20, 2017 and organized his return to Armenia together with the ICRC.

“The issue of the Armenian citizens kept in the Azerbaijani territory is in the focus of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and raised many times in different formats and meetings, including recently in Geneva. We are happy for the release and return of our citizen to homeland,” Naghdalyan concluded.