VIDEO: I Am Still Ready to Hand Over My Son for the Return of Prisoners, Says Pashinyan

During the election campaign, you stated that all prisoners are equal to you and that you are ready to hand over your son in exchange for prisoners. Later, you said that it still needs to be examined whether being captured is a crime or not. What is your position on the prisoners now? Is this issue closed for you?

This question was posed to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan by Elinar Vardanyan, a member of the 'Armenia' faction in the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that he is still ready to hand over his son in exchange for the return of prisoners.

“During the pre-election campaign, I also mediated for your political forces to provide some practical assistance on this issue, and I am still offering it, because we made that offer to the Azerbaijani side through unofficial channels at that time, which, unfortunately, did not yield a response. It remains a valid offer, and we will see if there is a response to it,” said Nikol Pashinyan.

At the same time, the Prime Minister reaffirmed that each case of captivity must be investigated. According to him, there is nothing surprising about this, as he believes there will be cases of captivity that will not lead to criminal consequences and vice versa.

“If you are interested in those situations to say here and there that orders were given from above not to defend the homeland, orders were given not to fire, orders were given to surrender, orders were given to release captured Azerbaijanis. If such an order existed, those who issued that order will be held accountable, but all of this has nothing to do with reality. We say that a soldier has duties and rights. Losing a weapon entails criminal liability. My statements are valid, and we have declared that work is ongoing daily for the return of prisoners, but that does not mean that once they return, there will be no investigation,” the Prime Minister emphasized.