ArmInfo. RA Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian stated that the Armenian side has suspicions that Azerbaijan does not represent the real numbers of Armenian prisoners of war. The Foreign Minister said this in an interview with the French newspaper Le monde.
He noted that additional lists were drawn up, and an agreement was reached between the parties that an exchange would take place on the principle of "all for all".
"Now I will not give exact numbers, as we have doubts that Azerbaijan does not represent us the real number of Armenian prisoners of war. I'm afraid there may be many more. We need to solve this problem as soon as possible, since there is a lot of evidence that the attitude towards Armenian prisoners of war is simply terrible and inhuman," the minister stressed.
Aivazian stated that the Armenian side actively cooperates with the International Committee of the Red Cross on issues related to prisoners of war.
"As you know, the ceasefire statement does not specify the deadline within which the prisoners of war should be returned, and Azerbaijan uses this and manipulates this issue. Baku demonstrates a simply inhuman attitude towards Armenian prisoners of war and thus exert pressure on the Armenian side," he said.
The Armenian Foreign Minister stated that Yerevan did not recognize the independence of Artsakh because it wanted to settle the issue during negotiations. However, if Azerbaijan does not agree to discuss the status of Artsakh, then Armenia can recognize the independence of the NKR.
"The right of peoples to self-determination is one of the main points of peace negotiations. Now some people have the opinion that as a result of the ceasefire in Artsakh, the issue of the NKR status will no longer be discussed, this is not the case. In this regard, the Minsk Group co-chairs confirmed that the issue of Artsakh's status will remain on the agenda of the talks, which is satisfactory. If Azerbaijan disagrees on this issue, Armenia will consider the process of recognizing the Republic of Artsakh," Ara Aivazian said.