Edmon Marukyan: The Return of Prisoners Has Failed

I cannot say what the reasoning behind it is. At least until January 11, there was silence in Armenia regarding the prisoners of war, and when it became known that Nikol Pashinyan was going to Moscow for a trilateral meeting, it became a subject of public discussion that the agenda should be the return of prisoners, and he confirmed that he was going with that agenda.

This was stated by Edmon Marukyan, the head of the 'Enlightened Armenia' faction, during a briefing at the National Assembly, referring to the government's statement that mentioning the issue of prisoners of war by the opposition jeopardizes the possibility of their return.

'The return of prisoners has failed, considering that we remained silent until now, and it hasn’t affected the process in any way. I believe that we should not remain silent; rather, we should raise our voices, consolidate the entire international community around this issue and ensure that pressure on Azerbaijan increases, and sanctions are imposed so that Azerbaijan returns the prisoners of war it has kept after the conflict. Otherwise, it appears that having accepted our defeat after the war, by signing a document and implementing all the points of that document, we still cannot fulfill the known eighth point regarding prisoners of war. This does not fit into any so-called 'justification',' said the MP.

According to Marukyan, it is necessary for the efforts of Russia and Armenia to be joined by the USA, France—as co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group—along with the European Union and many other countries. The civilized world needs to unite around this issue and compel Azerbaijan to return the prisoners of war it has kept from Armenia and Artsakh.

'We are preparing to go to Strasbourg and we will actively work there regarding the return of prisoners of war. We want to make the issue of prisoners a topic of urgent discussion and will do everything to unite the 45 states of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe around this demand,' he emphasized.