Azerbaijan Has Handed Over All Prisoners, We Only Have 'Criminals' Says Azerbaijani Prime Minister

On November 12, a videoconference was held for the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS countries, during which Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov also addressed the issue of Armenian prisoners of war, reports minval.az.

"Here, issues related to prisoners of war have been raised. The 8th provision of the November 10 announcement (referring to the trilateral statement signed on November 9, 2020, by the leaders of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) provides for the transfer of prisoners of war. Azerbaijan has fully complied with this provision. In this regard, I would like to note that the Russian Foreign Ministry states in its November 9, 2021 announcement that until December 2, 2020, 122 servicemen and detainees were returned to their countries with the participation of Russian peacekeepers. Of these, 105 were returned to Armenia and 17 to Azerbaijan," concluded Asadov.

It should be noted that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev refuses to fulfill the obligations set out in the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, regarding the return of Armenian prisoners of war. He claims that Azerbaijan has handed over all prisoners to Armenia, and that they only have "criminals" left.