Under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, a meeting of the interdepartmental commission dealing with the issues of prisoners, hostages and missing persons was held.
“Today we will discuss in detail issues related to the course of negotiations on prisoner exchanges, the work being carried out to locate missing persons, and the identification of the bodies of the deceased. I believe there is no need to stress once again that these issues occupy a primary place on the government’s agenda, and that the involved departments must act as quickly and flexibly as possible.
You are aware that we have had certain developments in the prisoner exchange process; on December 9, three Armenian civilian prisoners were transferred from Azerbaijan to Armenia through the mediation of the Russian Federation’s peacekeepers.
Currently, both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides have handed over lists of prisoners to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The process of verifying the lists is now underway. In the prisoner exchange process, as we have announced, we have proposed applying the ‘all for all’ principle, as well as creating a mechanism according to which, in the event of the discovery of new prisoners, each side is obliged to return them without preconditions. Let me note that everything possible is being done to speed up the exchange process as much as possible.
Today we will also discuss the necessary legislative changes, and to some extent we will also address issues related to improving the effectiveness of search operations, problems connected with DNA testing, the provision of psychological support, and the work of the hotline,” said Avinyan.
During the meeting, ways to further accelerate the process of identifying the bodies of the deceased through DNA analysis were discussed. The Ministry of Health has acquired an additional line for forensic genetic identification testing, which will make it possible to speed up the identification process further.
The members of the commission addressed in detail issues related to the provision of financial support to the families of missing servicemen, the development of psychological support programs and the introduction of systems for psychological rehabilitation, and the possibilities of conducting medical-social examinations of persons who are in medical institutions but do not have identity documents.
The Deputy Prime Minister gave the relevant departments appropriate instructions on all the above-mentioned issues.
