The process of return of citizen Zaven Karapetyan to his homeland is not application of the “principle of all for all”. This is what Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan declared in response to Armenian News-NEWS.am’s question whether the return of Zaven Karapetyan to his homeland was an exchange made as part of the process of “all for all” or this is another process.

“This isn’t about exchange since Armenia had declared right from the start that it was going to extradite Elvin Arif Oglu Ibrahimov (Ibrahimov unlawfully crossed the state border of Armenia on March 16, 2019) to Azerbaijan without any precondition, based on humanitarian considerations. This process was carried out through the combined efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the ICRC in Armenia. Ibrahimov hadn’t committed a grave crime, and so an individual approach based on the humanitarian principle is applicable for him.

We also took notice of Azerbaijan’s decision to release citizen of Armenia Zaven Karapetyan (found in the territory of Azerbaijan in unknown conditions on June 20, 2017) and organized his return to Armenia along with the ICRC.

The issue of citizens of Armenia being kept in the territory of Azerbaijan has always been in the focus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and has been raised several times in different formats and during different meetings, including recently in Geneva.

We are happy for the release of our citizen and his return to the homeland,” Naghdalyan stated.