During an interview given by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Turkish journalists, a question was also raised about Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan.
"Ruben Vardanyan is imprisoned, he is currently on a hunger strike. There is also some criticism of the Armenian government in the Armenian press regarding these topics, saying that appropriate efforts are not being made. What do you think about this issue?" one of the Turkish journalists asked Prime Minister Pashinyan.
"I have already said that this situation is very worrying for us. Today we have at least 23 prisoners, hostages, and other detained persons in Azerbaijan, and we are also trying to make every effort to resolve this issue. But on the other hand, we must understand that this is happening in a situation where Azerbaijan, in fact, is also using this factor with escalation logic and for escalation purposes. And when they say that the Armenian Government is not making the necessary efforts to resolve this issue, if people say something like that, it means they are sufficiently informed. If they are sufficiently informed, then they should take the next step and show what action the Armenian Government should take that would bring results, and the Government is not making that effort.
I generally understand this criticism and always say that as long as the efforts that the Government is making do not yield results, everyone can say that no effort is being made, because these efforts are mainly made at the diplomatic level. Why? Because in this genre, public statements should be very targeted and serve a specific purpose. And beyond certain cases of these public statements, they do not bring any benefit and, on the contrary, harm. I always bring the example of December 2023, when 32 of our captured compatriots returned to Armenia, and until the last second no one knew about the efforts that we were making and until the last second there were criticisms that the Government was not doing anything. And those people were right from their point of view, because from their point of view, the Government does something only in the case when that problem is solved.
As long as that issue is not resolved, anyone can claim that the Government is not making the necessary efforts, but until the official announcement in December 2023 about the return of our captured compatriots, until that last moment, there was a lot of harsh criticism that the Government was not doing anything. And the Government was doing it, and it became known only some time after those statements, and it became obvious.
I have already said that this is a painful issue, but there is also the following: we see that Azerbaijan, unfortunately, is using this issue, and I say again, especially in the context of the peace process, when there are constant attempts to bring in additional escalation factors, including public statements about torture, visual justifications about prohibited means, which is of course disturbing, unacceptable, and the Government of Armenia has expressed a clear position on this issue," Pashinyan answered.
Speaking about the provisions of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, Pashinyan, among other issues, also touched upon the issue of prisoners held in Baku.
"But I also want to make the following observation regarding the trilateral statement: the trilateral statement cannot be treated piecemeal. For example, the trilateral statement mentions the exchange and return of prisoners of war, hostages, and other detained persons, but this issue has not been resolved yet. Moreover, it is being exacerbated by the trials taking place in Baku, which, in our assessment, are staged trials where prohibited measures, torture, and according to our information, other prohibited measures, etc. are being used. The trilateral statement mentions Nagorno-Karabakh, but Azerbaijan continuously claims that there is no Nagorno-Karabakh. The trilateral statement talks about the return of refugees to Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions, but following the trilateral statement, on the contrary, the number of refugees has increased, and forced displacement has occurred, etc. I mean, it is not a good approach to treat the provisions of the trilateral statement piecemeal. In some places, they say it is no longer in force, in other places, they say it is in force, while attributing to it provisions that do not actually exist. After all, it is a public document," Pashinyan added.
