Your trusted source

Azerbaijan refuses to return at least 33 prisoners, hostages and other detained persons to Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

“Azerbaijan grossly violates clause 8 of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement, which states that there should be an exchange of prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons. Until now, Azerbaijan is holding and refusing to return at least 33 prisoners, hostages and other detained persons to Armenia, which is also a gross violation not only of the trilateral declaration, but also of humanitarian law,” he said.

“Our main collective work should be making Azerbaijan's chronic violations of its own commitments a subject for international assessment. Our diplomatic service, the foreign relations units of all departments, parliamentary diplomacy, the ruling force, the opposition, non-governmental organizations, representatives of the diaspora, individuals and legal entities with links abroad, and social media users must contribute to this cause to demonstrate that Azerbaijan's periodic violations of the 2020 trilateral declaration primarily aim to subject Nagorno-Karabakh to genocide or forced expatriation,” Pashinyan stated.