Azerbaijan Holds Over 100 Citizens of Armenia: Zareh Sinanyan

Azerbaijan is holding over one hundred citizens of Armenia, delaying the resolution of this issue and stalling the start of dialogue between Yerevan and Baku. This opinion was expressed by the Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Sinanyan stated that during his visit to Russia from February 24 to March 2, he discussed this issue with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko. “For us, the main theme is the return of Armenian prisoners of war and detained persons from Azerbaijan. I also discussed this issue during a meeting at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs... I know that there are more than a hundred of them, but I do not have specific numbers. We are conducting a dialogue because we want to clarify how many people have ended up in captivity in Azerbaijan; they (in Baku) know it better. It is clear that following military operations, we have a list of individuals located in Azerbaijan, as well as a list of the missing. In this case, the numbers are constantly changing,” he added.

According to him, Yerevan hopes that Moscow will further assist in resolving this issue. “We hope that while working with the Russian Federation, we will be able to achieve success. The Russian side has assured us that it will support the resolution of this issue, and we believe in that. The delay on this issue is postponing the start of dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Sinanyan said.