Minister of Defence Davit Tonoyan received on 18 March Claire Meytraud, Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross Delegation to Armenia, and Zurab Burduli, outgoing Coordinator of the Protection Affairs Unit.

Minister Tonoyan praised Burduli for the extensive work he carried out during his mission and wished him success in his future career.

The parties then discussed the cooperation between the Armenian Ministry of Defence and the ICRC delegation, as well as the planned actions, the ways of making the cooperation more effective and the upcoming tasks. They also discussed issues related to the fates of people missing in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and issues related to the cooperation between Armenia’s Commission on Captives, Hostages, and Missing Persons and the ICRC. The parties also discussed the fate of Karen Ghazaryan, an  Armenian citizen and residence of Tavush Privince Berdavan village, who crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July 2018 and was sentenced 20 years in prison by an Azerbaijani court on 27 February. They spoke of the importance of the coordinated efforts of the ICRC’s Yerevan and Baku offices to ensure Ghazaryan’s rights of visits by his family and correspondence.