From a long time ago, there was and still is an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan that those soldiers who get lost and end up on the opposite side are returned after a short time. Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the press conference, responding to the question why the serviceman of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces Ruslan Eldanis-Oglu Penakhov was returned to the Azerbaijani side without condition of returning an Armenian prisoner in his place.
"In the recent discussions with the President of Azerbaijan, we mutually reaffirmed that if there is a case of confusion, we must return it. With this, I reflect what you said that we returned without returning anyone, but I want to say that this is probably the first time in a long time that we have taken a step to revive that treaty in practice. In addition, see if a criminal case has been initiated, an investigation has been conducted, and the results of the investigation have revealed whether the person crossed the border intentionally, confusedly, and by appearing in the territory of Armenia, or whether he committed other acts before coming under the control of Armenia are subject to qualification under the RA Criminal Code. it turned out not to be so.
Moreover, I want to draw the attention of all of us to one fact. The fact that RA investigative bodies conducted an investigation and reached an objective and, in fact, exculpatory conclusion regarding the citizen of Azerbaijan, once again testifies to the result of institutional reforms in RA and the democratic nature of RA," he said.
"When we have found out that there is no reason to charge the soldier with a criminal offense, naturally the existing agreement should work, and this is done as an investment to further implement the agreements reached at that higher level.
Legal grounds are needed to detain any person, if there is no such legal basis, RA cannot detain anyone, regardless of whether they are citizens of the country, or keep them as hostages. It is not the way of working of our country", the Prime Minister mentioned.
"Let's record that daily work is being done regarding the return of the prisoners," he said.
