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YEREVAN. - The Azerbaijani side has never initiated talks on the return of captives and hostages.

Head of the Working Group of Armenia State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, Armen Kaprielyan, told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am correspondent, commenting on the statement of the Chairman of Azerbaijani State Committee for Affairs of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Ali Hasanov.

During his visit to Aghdam, which is under the control of Azerbaijan, Ali Hasanov stated among other things that “we offer Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev [conviceted in Nagorno-Karabakh] in exchange for all the Armenian hostages that we have, but they refuse to exchange,” haqqin.az reports, citing APA.

Kaprielyan noted that during the recent six years, the Armenian side has been persistently striving for a meeting with the representatives of the Azerbaijani State Committee to discuss issues related to the return of PoWs, hostages and missing persons.  

“The attention of the international community and competent international organization dealing with the issues of human rights and observation of the norms of international law, should be drawn to the wording in the statement of the aforementioned official. In this context, the word “hostage” supposes a civilian, captured by the opposite side of the conflict and kept on its territory against his will. The statement of the Azerbaijani official sounds quite odd considering that the relevant authorities of the neighboring state, including the State Committee, have been categorically refuting the information on the presence of PoWs and hostages from among civilians on their territory for many years.

I think the attention of the relevant international organizations should be drawn to this. For our part, we will do our best for the comprehensive examination of the current situation in light of the statements of the Azerbaijani official,” Armen Kaprielyan said. 

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