Armenian analysts dispute on exchange of officer captured in Azerbaijan

The exchange of Gurgen Alaverdyan, the captured Armenian officer, for the Azerbaijanis convicted for committing murder in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is unequal and will be a mistake, the analysts, Ayk Khachikyan and Vlad Vartanyan, believe. The likelihood of the exchange is high given the change of the NKR leadership, Naira Airumyan, a political observer, has noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 23, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported about a clash with saboteurs in the Karabakh conflict zone, where an Armenian officer was taken prisoner of war. On August 25, Gurgen Alaverdyan was charged under a number of articles. Azerbaijan may agree to exchange him and three more residents of Armenia for its citizens kept in jails of the NKR and Armenia, some analysts believe.

Ayk Khachikyan, an analyst of the "Razm.info" portal, has noted that Azerbaijan seeks to return its citizens, Guliev and Askerov, convicted for committing a murder and to heroize them, as in the case of Ramil Safarov. "That is why they present the Armenian prisoners as saboteurs in order to exchange them," Mr Khachikyan has concluded.

Vlad Vartanyan, an expert at the "Orbeli" Analytical Research Centre, did not rule out that the Armenian officer could have been kidnapped. It is not so important for Azerbaijan to exchange Guliev and Askerov, as to present them as civilian victims of the "bloody Armenian occupation regime," he has added.

Naira Airumyan, the editor of the "Lragir.am", has found the exchange on the principle "all for all" quite possible.

The fact that Azerbaijani experts have immediately raised the issue of the exchange likelihood may indicate that the Armenian officer could have been kidnapped for the purpose of exchange, Ms Airumyan has concluded.