“There is an impression that Pashinyan is acting as Aliyev’s spokesperson.” Siranush Sahakyan on Nikol Pashinyan’s response about the prisoners of war (POW).
One of the main topics of discussion in Brussels was the position of the EU and international organizations that our compatriots who were taken as prisoners a few days ago should be returned.
Nikol Pashinyan announced today during the question-answer session of the National Assembly-Government.
“Our position also presupposes, that we are trying to make maximum efforts in that issue to solve the problem as soon as possible,” he said in the National Assembly.
According to Pashinyan, Azerbaijan is constantly trying to link the return of prisoners and hostages with additional conditions, but Armenia does not agree with that position.
“Our position remains the same, i.e., according to the trilateral statement of November 9, all detainees, prisoners of war and hostages must be returned,” Pashinyan stressed.
He also stated that at the moment we have 39 confirmed prisoners in Azerbaijan, one of them has recently got lost and appeared under the control of the Azerbaijanis.
“The most effective way is to secure the support and pressure of the international community so that our citizens return to their homeland as soon as possible,” Pashinyan continued, adding that there are many views that the issue of our captive compatriots should be made a precondition for political processes.
“Our position has been and remains the same that humanitarian issues should not be linked to political ones, they are separate, on the contrary, when we interconnect with political issues, we will not increase the importance of the issue, but will reduce it,” Pashinyan concluded. .
Having a discussion with 168.am, the representative of the Armenian prisoners in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Siranush Sahakyan noticed.
“Yes, we do have 39 confirmed prisoners, but Nikol Pashinyan’s statement is problematic in the sense that only the data officially announced by Azerbaijan are presented, which is also internationally confirmed by Azerbaijan. But the Armenian authorities have to talk about the numbers held by Armenia, make their official information public, and according to the official Armenian side, there are more cases of captivity than the confirmed 39. At least 80 people, mostly servicemen, have been taken prisoner, “these facts have also been proven” by videos, but in incomprehensible circumstances the Armenian leader speaks only about the numbers presented by Azerbaijan, they are to the detriment of the citizens of Armenia. “There is an impression that Pashinyan is acting as Aliyev‘s spokesman,” said the international law expert.
Siranush Sahakyan insists that the Armenian leader should speak about the data submitted by the Armenian special services, investigative bodies, human rights organizations, and the office representing the Government in international courts; he should internationalize those data.
“It is too late to talk about international pressure to return the captives today. When the territories were returned after the signing of the November 9 declaration, but the confirmed prisoners were not repatriated, the human rights organizations, including local NGOs, began to make a fuss. Instead of supporting these efforts, the Armenian authorities criticized or spread false information to the families of the prisoners that the international publicization of the issue would harm the process, the interests of the captive men,” said the representative of the Armenian prisoners at the ECHR, adding that only two years later that there were no threats, moreover, the opposite actions of the Armenian authorities contributed to the longer delay of their repatriation process.
According to Siranush Sahakyan, it is good that there is already the awareness, and Nikol Pashinyan figures out that the issue of the return of the Armenian captives is beyond his power, but it is too late, and as a result of numerous manipulations they have ended up here.
To the question, is there a contextual and legal difference between the terms “detainees” and “prisoners”, because on May 23, European Council President Charles Michel made a statement on the results of the trilateral meeting between Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in which Siranush Sahakyan answered that there was no difference in terms of quantity, but there was a difference in the wording.
“The state guarantees the return of 39 Armenians, regardless of their status. The President of the Council of Europe has been cautious, as the Azerbaijanis are also creating a legal dispute over the status of Armenian prisoners of war, presenting them as criminals, terrorists, but not specially held captive persons under the rules of war. In other words, a European official uses the pro-Azerbaijani term, “ said Siranush Sahakyan.
It should be reminded that while Nikol Pashinyan speaks about the effectiveness of international pressure for the return of the prisoners, after the trilateral meeting, Charles Michel states in his statement.
“Today I hosted the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. This was our third meeting on this format. We focused on the situation in the South Caucasus, on developing the EU’s relations with the two countries, as well as with the wider region. The discussion was sincere and effective. We reviewed the whole set of questions. We discussed in detail humanitarian issues, including demining efforts, the release of detainees, and efforts to determine the fate of missing persons.”
Gohar Savzyan
