Ashotyan Highlights Key Points from Lavrov and Mirzoyan's Press Conference

Armen Ashotyan, commenting on the recent meeting between Mirzoyan and Lavrov, wrote: “Key highlights from the press conference of Lavrov, the alpha of global diplomacy, and Mirzoyan, the omega of the agency network:

1. On the issue of prisoners of war: The press conference once again confirmed that the ongoing captivity of our soldiers by Azerbaijan is exclusively due to the capitulators' fault.
   • a. Why did the Armenian side immediately fulfill the 8th point of the November 9 statement on the exchange of prisoners without reservations and even went beyond that?
   • b. Why was a new element, the maps of mined areas, added to the prisoner exchange process? After all, such a precondition was not included in the November 9 statement.
   • c. Why did we proceed with further agreements with Azerbaijan without resolving the issue of our soldiers? If you do not prioritize this issue, the enemy will exploit it for as long as they can benefit. This refers to the December "oral" agreement on the territories of Zangelan and Kubatlu and the "unblocking" statement of January 11.
   • d. The mediating country clearly emphasized that it is making efforts to resolve this issue but will not take responsibility for the resolution of the problem.
2. On the peace treaty:
   • a. The Russian Foreign Minister clearly distinguished between the delimitation issue and the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty during the press conference, emphasizing Russia’s willingness to provide full support in the former case while simply redirecting the latter issue to the omega.
   • b. Lavrov sent us a very direct message: if Armenia renounces Artsakh, it will be entirely the fault of today’s capitulators.”