YEREVAN, AUGUST 19, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani side has given no response about returning the corpse of the Armenian citizen Karen Petrosyan, who was killed in Azerbaijani captivity. The representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are involved as mediators in the negotiations: the mediation mandate of this international structure is acceptable for both Armenia and Azerbaijani authorities. And although the Armenian side is inclined to direct negotiations, the Azerbaijani side has not entered into direct communication for 5-6 years, avoiding direct negotiations. In a conversation with “Armenpress”, the head of the working group of the State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of the Republic of Armenia Armen Kaprielian referred to the Geneva Conventions and the two Additional Protocols regulating the sphere, which are the basis of the International Humanitarian Law and which regulate the issues of prisoners of war, hostages and missing persons in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. “The International Humanitarian Law recognizes the state’s expression of goodwill, and Azerbaijan should have returned Karen Petrosyan’s body without preconditions, but as we are dealing with Azeris, they are always talking in a language of preconditions. We do not exclude the possibility that this time they will again propose a precondition and will talk about exchange. Although we demanded that Azerbaijan should respond and act without preconditions, the years’ experience has shown that this country is incapable of expression of good will,” said Armen Kaprielian, noting that the international law does not accept the term "exchange". The ICRC, for example, uses the term “simultaneous handover”.

And yet, the Armenian side does not exclude the exchange option. The expression of good will of the Armenian side is evidenced by the fact that, for example, in 2010 during the handover of the dead body of the Armenian shepherd Manvel Saribekyan, killed in Azerbaijani captivity, the Armenian side handed over the Azerbaijani resident Eldar Taghirov who had crossed the Armenian border illegally.