YEREVAN. – Armenia's State Commission for POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons advised that Azerbaijani side should better work instead of making groundless statements and assumptions.

“Instead of groundless assumptions they would better think about creating background for establishing contacts to clarify the fate of missing persons in cooperation with the Armenian colleagues,” chairman of the commission Arman Kaprielyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

His remark came in response to the recent statement made by secretary of Azerbaijani commission on POWs, hostages and missing persons Firudin Sadigov. The latter said “some details of 31 persons registered by the State Commission as missing people have emerged, suggesting they may be alive or being held hostage or captive in Armenian-occupied territories”.

The head of Armenian commission pointed to Azerbaijan's refusal to work on any matter.

“Their commission has neither confirmed, nor unconfirmed data and facts. Azerbaijani side is providing false figures: once they said there are 5,000 captives, then the figure reduced and increased again. Such an approach is unacceptable when it comes to an official,” Kaprielyan added.

He reminded of Armenian side's repeated proposals to start working on the issue of missing persons.

As to the recent statement by Firudin Sadigov, “there are no Azerbaijani captives in Armenia”, he added.