Heads of Armenian and Azerbaijani security services meet to discuss exchange of POWs
YEREVAN, January 10. /ARKA/. The director of Armenia's National Security Service Armen Abazyan had a working meeting with the head of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan Ali Nagiyev, the press center of the National Security Service of Armenia reported on Saturday.
It said the meeting took place in the border neutral zone adjacent to the Yeraskh community of the Ararat region of Armenia.
"During the meeting, Abazyan and Nagiyev discussed the issues related to the exchange of prisoners of war and search for missing persons. Contacts on these topics will continue," the press center said.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry on Saturday strongly condemned the criminal prosecution initiated by Azerbaijan against the Armenian prisoners of war, announced by the foreign minister of that country. The Armenian Foreign Ministry recalled that during the 44-day aggression against Artsakh, the Azerbaijani side committed massive violations of international law, most of which are war crimes without a statute of limitations.
Earlier, Armenian human rights defender Arman Tatoyan said that all Armenian servicemen captured by the Azerbaijani military must be released and returned to Armenia immediately and without preconditions.
He said it is absolutely unacceptable that the 8th point of the tripartite statement of November 10, signed by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, has no mention of specific time limit for the exchange or return of prisoners of war and other detainees.
On December 14, the first 44 Armenian prisoners of war and other captivates were brought home by a Russian military plane from Azerbaijan and 12 Azerbaijani citizens were flown to Baku.
Armenia and Azerbaijan earlier agreed to "all for all" swap of POWs. The exact data on the number of Armenians captives or soldiers gone missing during the war in Artsakh is not known.
On December 28 four more Armenian prisoners of war were repatriated with the mediation of Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross.-0-
