I urge not to make the previous mistakes and not forget about the factor and opinions of the representatives of Karabakh when implementing such programs. Azerbaijan’s actions are not due to humanitarian considerations. This is what Head of the International Center for Human Development, politician Tevan Poghosyan said today, commenting on the statement by head of the Council of the Relatives of Missing Freedom Fighters Rima Arakelyan on the exchange of prisoners of war.

According to Tevan Poghosyan, Azerbaijan is only doing this to not be in an uncomfortable situation in the eye of the international community, and Armenia would take this humanitarian action in any case, proof of which is Niikol Pashinyan’s statement that Armenia will release a person having crossed the border, if that person is a civilian.

“There were agreements on creating mechanisms for investigations in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, but Baku isn’t even taking action to expand the powers of Kasprzik’s group. There were also other agreements, but violations have been noticed,” he stated.

Poghosyan expressed confidence that there will be serious changes in Azerbaijan when the content of history textbooks is changed and when people are not persecuted for wearing a shirt with the name of, say, an Armenian footballer on it.

The politician also stated that, for this or that reason, Karabakh isn’t participating in popular democracy programs, including programs that are related to prisoners of war and the missing.

“This needs to change, taking into consideration the fact that Armenia’s government has announced about the need to have Karabakh return to the negotiating table,” he concluded.

On June 28, Armenia and Azerbaijan each exchanged detainees, including citizen of Armenia Zaven Karapetyan and citizen of Azerbaijan Elvin Ibrahimov.