Monday, May 10 2021 11:45

ArmInfo. In the light of the recent international impulses on the need to return the Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, we see that the noose around Ilham Aliyev is  gradually tightening and, apparently, will continue to tighten  further. A similar opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by the lawmaker  of the parliamentary faction "My Step" Tatevik Hayrapetyan.

"The return of our three guys from Azerbaijani captivity was the  result of the joint efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group, in particular,  and the growing international pressure, in general. Prior to this  pressure, Baku repeatedly voiced at various levels its refusal to  return even one prisoner. However, it was forced to do so just under  international pressure and hard work towards the return home of all  our guys, "she said.

In this light, the parliamentarian considers it necessary for Yerevan  to display consistency in this issue in order to transform the  problem of prisoners into a real headache for Azerbaijan in general  and for Aliyev in particular. That, according to Hayrapetyan, is  already taking place and as a result of which Azerbaijan is forced,  albeit in small parties, to return Armenian prisoners further. First  of all, due to the contradiction between the fact of their being held  captive to the existing agreements and the contradiction of Baku's  destructive behavior to international humanitarian law.

According to Hayrapetyan's estimates, nevertheless, against this  background, Baku's appetites after the military victory only grow,  and Aliyev seeks to capitalize his own success in all possible ways,  including family, collective hugging of trees. And the  parliamentarian assesses his periodic threats and territorial claims  against Armenia as a transfer of the threat of a military invasion of  Armenia to an even higher level than it was even before last year's  war. 

Statements of official Baku at the level of the Foreign Ministry,  according to which Azerbaijan has achieved its goals and no longer  has new territorial claims against Armenia, in its opinion, do not  reflect Aliyev's real appetites. And according to the  parliamentarian, when developing its own strategy, Yerevan must take  into account all these realities and appetites and be guided in  further actions, including by them.  "We failed to draw the necessary  conclusions from our victory. But I really hope that we will draw  them from our defeat. We must rethink what happened to us and work  out ways of restructuring our state in such a way as to exclude even  the possibility of a repetition of such aggression against us, " the  lawmaker summed up.