Pashinyan still ready to offer his son in exchange for captives, reiterates position on investigating cases of captivity
Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan reaffirmed his readiness to send his son to Baku in exchange for all Armenian captives held in Azerbaijan. His remarks came at the parliament Q/A session on Wednesday when reminded by opposition lawmaker Elinar Vardanyan of PM's previous statements about prisoners.
"I am still ready to send my son in exchange for prisoners. My previous suggestion was passed to the Azerbaijani side through official and non-official channels and received no reaction," said Pashinyan.
He next reiterated his position on the need to investigate every case of captivity which had stirred outrage among the relatives of prisoners. "Every day works are being done to return the captives, however that does not mean there will be no investigation upon their return," he said.
To note, Pashinyan response came amid new controversial comments made this time by National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan about prisoners of war (POWs). Simonyan came under fire after calling Armenian POWs held in Azerbaijan deserters. In a scandalous video recording which emerged online on Tuesday, he can be heard saying that many of them “laid down their arms, ran away and got lost”, ending up in captivity. “Those POWs don’t exist for me anymore,” he said.