Azerbaijan Called to Immediately Return All Armenian Prisoners of War, Ruben Rubinyan

During the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a crucial report for the Armenian side was discussed, which, among other demands, called for Azerbaijan to immediately return all Armenian prisoners of war. This was announced by Ruben Rubinyan, the head of the Armenian delegation in the PACE, during a press conference where he provided details on the proceedings of the session.

Two reports of particular interest to the Armenian side were discussed at the recent PACE session, one of which concerned the extraordinary parliamentary elections held in Armenia. "These elections were assessed as competitive and well-organized. They are, in essence, the second nationwide elections in Armenia that received high marks from the PACE observers," Rubinyan stated.

The second report of interest pertains to the humanitarian consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "This report has been prepared over several months. It encompasses all the concerns we had and the points we wanted to be included in the report. It states that the war is a violation of the commitments undertaken by the conflicting parties as members of the Council of Europe, and the PACE must investigate this issue. It records the transport of Syrian mercenaries to Nagorno-Karabakh with the support and involvement of Turkey and their participation in the war. It also explicitly calls on Azerbaijan to immediately return all Armenian military prisoners and other detained individuals, regardless of the status assigned to those individuals in Azerbaijan," the delegation leader added.

When asked if members of the Armenian delegation had engaged in discussions outside the session with Turkish or Azerbaijani parliamentarians in Strasbourg, Rubinyan answered negatively. "There has been no substantial interaction beyond 'hello.' As it was before, so it is now in this regard," he said.