Apart from Maral Najaryan, There are Allegedly 3 More Armenian Women in Captivity in Azerbaijan: Siranush Sahakyan

Apart from Lebanese-Armenian Maral Najaryan, there are allegedly three more Armenian women in captivity in Azerbaijan. This was stated by Siranush Sahakyan, a lawyer and representative of Armenian prisoners' interests at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in a conversation with NEWS.am.

"We have submitted the details of three women to the relevant authorities. Three women, civilians, have found themselves under Azerbaijan's control. Azerbaijan has not officially confirmed their captivity. We also have cases where displaced persons have been killed," Sahakyan noted.

Siranush Sahakyan mentioned that two of the women were captured during the war, with one being detained after the trilateral statement on November 9.

When asked if a new group of prisoners is expected to be returned in the near future, Sahakyan replied, "I do not think there will be such developments shortly. At the moment, there are no external political preconditions for that. We expect the involvement of new structures within the framework of judicial processes. We have approached the court to forward the issue to the Committee of Ministers. We do not rule out that the ongoing judicial process may prompt the European Court to appeal to the Committee of Ministers to address the issue of the non-implementation of urgent measures. This would increase political pressure on Azerbaijan within the Council of Europe. In such a case, we do not exclude that some movements may be recorded under the auspices of this structure."

Responding to representatives of the authorities who claimed that Azerbaijan refuses to return Armenian prisoners due to the internal political situation in Armenia, Sahakyan commented, "From the viewpoint of resolving this intergovernmental issue, only negotiations and the position of the negotiator during those negotiations matter. Internal political developments have no impact. Azerbaijan is not demonstrating denial based on protests in Armenia, but rather that it cannot find common ground with the Armenian authorities. That position has also been formalized."

It is worth noting that Maral Najaryan, captured by Azerbaijani forces, was released yesterday and returned home to Beirut.