Prisoners Must Be Returned Unconditionally, The Rest is Blackmail and Hostage-taking: Artak Zeynalyan

168.am reports: “Nikol Pashinyan has announced that he is ready to meet with the President of Azerbaijan and take with him the maps that Ilham Aliyev has mentioned. In return, Pashinyan has called on Aliyev to bring all Armenian prisoners of war with him. This statement was made during a Q&A session following a meeting with the Armenian community in Lithuania’s Vilnius. Later, during a joint press conference with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, he elaborated: ‘Azerbaijan is raising the issue of the maps of minefields, which pose a humanitarian threat. We have handed over a part of these maps. And as I said yesterday, in anticipation of a potential meeting, I am ready to take with me all such maps that represent a humanitarian threat and do not have a security function for us, and I hope that the President of Azerbaijan will also bring with him, in a conditional or direct sense, the prisoners, hostages, and other persons held in Azerbaijan.’

Furthermore, it should be noted that it is not only those whose captivity has been officially confirmed that must be considered but also our citizens who, according to our information, are in Azerbaijan, although their captivity has not been officially established.

Although the 8th point of the November 9 statement by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia concerns the exchange of prisoners of war, hostages, and other detained persons, as well as the bodies of the deceased, it has become clear over the past year that the return of prisoners has also occurred in exchange for the provision of minefield maps.

168.am inquired with human rights defender Artak Zeynalyan regarding his views on Nikol Pashinyan's proposal to exchange maps for prisoners. When asked, considering that the return of prisoners was already provided for in the November 9 document but Armenian prisoners are still being held in Azerbaijan, what guarantee there is that, for example, prisoners will be returned in exchange for maps, the human rights defender responded: ‘According to the Geneva Convention, prisoners are subject to return unconditionally. And also, according to the document signed after the cessation of hostilities, detained persons are to be returned. The rest is already blackmail and hostage-taking.’