'Coffins should be exchanged for coffins,' says politologist Manasyan

The exchange of war prisoners between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a symbolic process, according to politologist Alexander Manasyan.

“We gave them a living person and received a dead body in return. This may establish a bad precedent for future, and they will be used to exchanging coffins with living people” he told a news conference today, touching upon the recent presidential meeting in Astrakhan.

“Coffins should be exchanged with coffins,” he said, calling on the authorities not to trust Azerbaijan’s promises to follow the terms of the agreement.

The Azerbaijani side on Thursday handed to Armenia the dead body of Manvel Saribekyan who reportedly committed suicide in his prison cell in Baku.

Armenia rendered an Azerbaijani citizen in return.