Human Rights Defender Provides Data: 38 Prisoners of War Officially Held in Azerbaijan

As of now, the Azerbaijani side has returned 150 captured soldiers to Armenia. This information was shared with Sputnik Armenia by human rights defender and representative of Armenia in the European Court of Human Rights, Siranush Sahakyan.

According to her, there are officially 38 prisoners of war being held in Azerbaijan, while 80 cases of proven captivity remain unconfirmed. "Representatives of other countries are working with Azerbaijani officials at various levels regarding this matter, but I do not think those partners are putting forth maximum effort, as they see the cooperation between Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities. There has been no request from the Armenian side for international partners to resolve these issues, as they do not want to appear as 'unsatisfactory' since Armenia is building friendly relations with Azerbaijan," Sahakyan stated.

The human rights defender also emphasized that the 80 individuals are not listed among the missing persons in Armenia. She pointed out that those missing are considered so when there is no information about them, meaning they could have been captured or killed on the battlefield; their bodies have simply not yet been found.

Regarding those captured on November 16, 2021, she highlighted that one individual remains in captivity. "The serviceman Edik Hovsepyan from the Armenian Ministry of Defense's Unit N has not been returned by the Republic of Azerbaijan. A total of 32 individuals were captured on that day. We have data indicating that one of the servicemen who died in captivity was injured while being held in Azerbaijan. The circumstances still need clarification," the human rights defender said.

Speaking about the prisoners from Shirak, Sahakyan noted that currently, 30 out of 62 prisoners have not been repatriated. Among those captured during the 44-day war in 2020 until November 9, 5 individuals continue to remain in Azerbaijan, including civilians.