YEREVAN. – The Armenian side stands ready to send the minor Turkish citizen to his homeland.

Tigran Balayan, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia (RA MFA), said the abovementioned at Wednesday’s press briefing.

He noted that Yerevan on Tuesday announced that the criminal case against this Turkish citizen—who had illegally crossed the Armenian border—is dropped. 

“The teenager’s father petitioned to the RA authorities asking for showing leniency,” Balayan said. “We are waiting for the response from the Turkish side [in order] to send him [back] to Turkey.”

Umut Ali Özmen, 16, a resident of Turkey’s Kars Province, had crossed the Armenian-Turkish border on July 24. A criminal case was filed into this incident, and on charges of illegally crossing the Armenian state border.

But sometime thereafter, the Prosecutor General’s Office informed that the criminal case was dropped, and the precautionary measure of detention—which was implemented for Özmen—was lifted.