Authorities Obstruct Opposition Initiatives Concerning Armenian Prisoners of War in Baku, Says Mamijanyan

Authorities are obstructing our initiatives regarding Armenian prisoners of war, stated Haik Mamijanyan, the head of the 'Honor' faction in the National Assembly of Armenia, in an interview with 'Factinfo'.

Earlier, the MP reported that he would send an official letter to the Speaker of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan, demanding a visit to see our compatriots held in captivity in Azerbaijan to familiarize himself with their health conditions and detention circumstances. However, the Armenian National Assembly refused to send Mamijanyan's letter to the Speaker of the Milli Majlis.

Mamijanyan noted that National Assembly officials explained that diplomatic relations do not exist with Azerbaijan, and for that reason, the letter was not sent. 'Naturally, I was aware of this; the discussion was about sending a letter through diplomatic channels, which did not happen. We note that the authorities are obstructing initiatives regarding prisoners of war; they seize every favorable and unfavorable opportunity to engage with Azerbaijan but do not wish to address the issue of the prisoners,' said Mamijanyan.

According to him, today the opposition MPs met with David McAllister, the Chair of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, during which they also discussed the matter of Armenian prisoners of war, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the status of Artsakh, and Armenian-Azerbaijani as well as Armenian-Turkish relations.

'We talked about the self-determination of Artsakh and the current state of negotiations, dedicating some time to internal political issues, political prisoners, police violence, and anti-democratic processes,' Mamijanyan stated.

He noted that there were private meetings with MPs from the 'Armenia' and 'Honor' factions.

In an interview with a media outlet today, representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Supreme Body Ishkhan Saghatelyan did not rule out that the opposition may return to the parliament in September.

When asked whether the 'Honor' faction has discussed such an issue, Saghatelyan said, 'Mr. Saghatelyan has stated what he said from the stage of the rally; I have nothing to add to that. There has been a declaration that if we return, it will only be on our agenda, and we agree with that.'