Azeri analysts treat exchange of captured Armenian officer as possible

Gurgen Alaverdyan, the captured Armenian officer, faces criminal prosecution, but Azerbaijan can exchange him and two other convicted Armenian military servicemen for the Azerbaijani citizens kept in jails in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and Armenia. This is the opinion of Avaz Gasanov, the head of the Society for Humanitarian Studies, and Telman Abilov, the head of the NGO "Military Officers".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported on August 23 about a clash with saboteurs in the Karabakh conflict zone, where an Armenian officer was taken prisoner. In its turn, the Armenian MoD has stated that Gurgen Alaverdyan is not a saboteur, but he got lost because of bad weather.

If the detainee has committed no crime, then "he must be returned back," Avaz Gasanov has stated.

"Azerbaijan sticks to exchanging prisoners on the principle of 'all for all.' In the occupied NKR, Azerbaijani citizens Shakhbaz Guliev and Dilgam Askerov were sentenced to long prison terms. On the other hand, Azerbaijan keeps two Armenian militaries, detained while suppressing diversion. But Armenia wouldn't agree with this, claiming that Guliev and Askerov were convicted by the 'Karabakh authorities', and they cannot influence them," Mr Gasanov has noted.

In his turn, Telman Abilov believes that Alaverdyan can be criminally prosecuted. "Firstly [according to Baku], he headed a sabotage and reconnaissance group ... Besides, Alaverdyan may be charged with participation in an 'illegal armed formation'; and all the military units in the territories that Azerbaijan treats as its occupied ones are treated as such," Mr Abilov said.