YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on November 28 will meet with the parents of Karen Ghazaryan who is currently in the Azerbaijani captivity, reports Armenpress.

“Today I will meet with the parents of Karen Ghazaryan in the municipality. My spouse has visited them two times. Azerbaijan has made a semi-official offer to exchange three Azerbaijani citizens in Artsakh with the three Armenians who are in Azerbaijan. But two of these Azerbaijani citizens are imprisoned in Artsakh, the one for 20 years and the other to life imprisonment because they have killed citizens of Artsakh. And now the question is the following: whether the relatives of those killed will agree that Artsakh returns the murderers of their kids to Azerbaijan. It’s clear that Azerbaijan will declare new Ramil Safarovs from these murderers. Do we want to bear the political and practical consequences of this? A man accidentally crossed the border from Turkey, and we sent him back to his country without any preconditions. It would be logical if they returned Karen in the same way. We dealt and are dealing with the issue of Karen also in accordance with the agreement reached in Dushanbe. It’s a simple, humanitarian issue, and we will make all efforts to solve this issue”, Pashinyan said during the election campaign of My Step alliance in Noyemberyan town.

Pashinyan said there is a version that Karen has been kidnapped from his own home.

“People are concerned and worried about the level of defense at the border. There is a suspicion that Karen was kidnapped from his own home, but there are no proofs yet. I will definitely discuss this issue with the representatives of our Armed Forces. We will take actions if necessary”, he said.

On July 15, 2018 the Azerbaijani defense ministry announced that it pushed back, with the formulation of the Azerbaijani media, a sabotage group of the Armenian Armed Forces in the direction of Qazax region, and one of the group members was taken captive. Immediately after this statement Armenia’s defense ministry announced that that person is Karen Ghazaryan, a resident of Berdavan village of Armenia’s Tavush province, who faces mental problems, doesn’t serve and has never served in the Armenian Armed Forces.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan