YEREVAN. – We are in touch with the Red Cross representatives in connection with Karen Ghazaryan, who recently crossed over to the Azerbaijani side, but there is no progress yet.

Tigran Balayan, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, stated the aforementioned at Monday’s briefing. He added that the Armenian side was trying—by way of the Red Cross—to take steps toward having this Armenian citizen returned from Azerbaijan. 

In his words, Ghazaryan has a health issue because of which he was not drafted into the army.

Balayan said Azerbaijan was portraying this person with a mental illness as a saboteur, and noted that the adversary had given similar attributes to elderly Armenians and a shepherd who had found himself on the border, and therefore this was yet another manifestation of Azerbaijan’s policy.