Your trusted source

The Azerbaijani authorities “assisted” caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the campaign for the June 20 snap parliamentary elections through the release of several Armenian captives shortly before the election day, Edgar Ghazaryan, a former chief of staff of Armenia’s Constitutional Court, told a news conference on Monday.

He indicated that Pashinyan personally negotiates the issue of prisoners of war (POWs) with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, adding the Foreign Ministry is non-functional.

Speaking about the release of 15 Armenian prisoners by Azerbaijan late on Saturday in exchange for mine maps, Ghazaryan said: “Although Nikol Pashinyan said that he was ready to exchange his son for the captives, the fact remains that he continues to live in a government villa and enjoy his life. In the meantime, our maps are being handed over, but most of the POWs remain in captivity.”

In Ghazaryan’s words, Armenia has found itself in “anarchy”, where there is no government to take care of the country’s interests and protect the rights of its citizens.

He stated the authorities’ move to hand over the maps containing confidential information to Azerbaijan in return for captives amounts to “treason”, adding the latter must have been set free under the November 9 tripartite statement.

"In fact, the return of these people is just a cover-up: virtually the transfer of data crucial for the Armenian side and vital for the Azerbaijani side is taking place, and a number of people are repatriated to Armenia to cover up this crime,” he said.

He underlined if those maps had not been handed over to Azerbaijan, they would not have been able to use the Artsakh territories held by them, as Azerbaijan would have needed large sums to demine those areas for decades.

"Nikol Pashinyan handed over the territories to the enemy under the pretext of the war, and now he is creating all the necessary conditions for the enemy to use them to the full," Ghazaryan stated, adding that the new "prisoners for maps" deal is not envisaged by any document.