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The attempt of Azerbaijani authorities to present Armenian citizen Karen Ghazaryan, who is being held captive in Baku, as a criminal and orchestrating judicial proceedings against him is a flagrant violation of the international humanitarian law, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan told a news briefing on Tuesday.

“From the very beginning, it was clear that the Azerbaijani authorities would attempt to stage a performance involving the Armenian citizen who ended up in the Azerbaijani territory in unknown circumstances, presenting him as a saboteur. But their initial scenario seems to have failed since Karen Ghazaryan suffers from mental problems and wasn’t conscripted for military service,” she stressed.

“By staging a judicial process, Azerbaijan tries to press grave charges against a person with serious health problems, which is a gross violation of the international humanitarian law,” she stressed. 

The spokesperson noted that this farce of Azerbaijan is just aimed at presenting a sick person as a criminal and thus putting an equals sign to some extent between him and the two saboteurs sentenced in Artsakh for committing serious crimes.

“To remind, in 2015, an Artsakh court sentenced two Azerbaijanis who are accused of illegally border crossing, possession of firearms, hate-motivated murder of a minor, violence against him, and one of them – of attempted murder against two others,” she said, adding the Armenian Foreign Ministry is taking measures to return the Armenian captive.

Separately, she commented on a possible meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers on the sidelienes of the 25th OSCE Ministerial Council meeting scheduled to be held on 6 and 7 December in Milan.

“The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have proposed to organize a meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs by the end of this year. When the meeting is clarified, the public will be updated on it accordingly,” she said.

The Foreign Ministry official also touched upon the possible effects of Iran sanctions on Armenia, adding the country keeps a watchful eye on the developments agreed with the sanctions imposed on Iran, making corresponding assessments and taking necessary measures.