September 2, 2020 - 17:03 AMT
ICRC hasn't been able to contact Armenian officer held in Azerbaijan

The International Committee of the Red Cross has not yet been able to contact Armenian army officer Gurgen Alaverdyan, who has been kept hostage in Azerbaijan since August 22, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan told reporters on Wednesday, September 2.

"Azerbaijan's destructive and provocative actions and violations of of international humanitarian law undermine the creation of an environment conducive to peace," Naghdalyan said.

Azerbaijan has long proposed exchanging prisoners of war in a formula they call "all in exchange for all", but Naghdalyan said there are no prisoners of war in Armenia, while Armenians who have found themselves in Azerbaijan have committed no crimes.

Two Azerbaijani saboteurs are currently serving sentences in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) for killing an Armenian officer, a 17-year-old teenager and wounding a civilian.

Naghdalyan said Azerbaijan is trying to get hold of the two "murderers", maintaining that killing a minor is a grave crime, regardless of whether it was committed in a conflict zone or somewhere else.

The spokeswoman said two Azerbaijani citizens have found their way to Armenia in 2020 but Armenia, unlike Azerbaijan, has not violated their rights and hasn't launched criminal proceedings.

Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said earlier that Alaverdyan went missing after he left the post to observe the checkpoint and got lost.