Aliyev Reveals That Armenian Prisoners of War Are Being Held as Hostages in Azerbaijan: Marukyan

Edmon Marukyan, an MP of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, posted on his Facebook page:

“Dear compatriots, I inform you that I just delivered my last speech as an MP of the 7th convocation of the National Assembly of Armenia at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The content of my speech: Allow me to draw your attention to the fact that since the ceasefire on November 9, the Azerbaijani government has still not released Armenian prisoners of war, including civilians and women.

Today, the trial for 13 Armenian prisoners of war is taking place in Azerbaijan. This means that fictitious criminal cases have been initiated against them in Azerbaijan, which violates international humanitarian law. President Aliyev declares that he will not return the prisoners of war until he receives maps of the mined territories. This means he is politicizing a humanitarian issue and revealing that Armenian prisoners of war are being held as hostages in Azerbaijan.

We also have information that some Armenian prisoners (including women) have been tortured to death in Azerbaijani prisons. As you may already be aware, on May 12, the Azerbaijani armed forces illegally crossed the Armenian border and advanced 3.5 km in that area. By this illegal advance, they have established a foothold in the territory of the Sev Lake in the Syunik region of Armenia. The illegal presence of Azerbaijani armed forces in the area of Sev Lake is absolutely unacceptable and grossly violates our country’s territorial integrity and Article 2 of the UN Charter.

Such prolonged and illegal violations of the trilateral declaration by Azerbaijan seriously hinder the full implementation of that declaration and create new threats to the security and peace of the region. Therefore, we call upon our European partners to address Azerbaijan's actions clearly and unequivocally, impose sanctions against Azerbaijan’s military-political authoritarian leadership, and take joint actions with us to expedite the process of exchanging prisoners without preconditions and artificial obstacles, such as fictitious criminal cases, as well as reaffirm Armenia's territorial integrity by forcing Azerbaijan’s military leadership to withdraw its units from Armenian territories.”