ArmInfo.Azerbaijan, violating not only its obligations under the tripartite declaration, but also the norms of international humanitarian law, continues to illegally detain Armenian prisoners of war, civilians, using them as hostages and a bargaining tool.
This was stated by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, when asked to comment on the statement of the President of Azerbaijan that a year and a half after the signing of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, it has not been fully implemented, in particular, the issue of unblocking regional transport communications has not yet been resolved.
Mirzoyan agreed that the November 9 tripartite statement has not yet been fully implemented, recalling the Armenian prisoners of war and civilians held in Baku. "This demand was presented to Azerbaijan not only by Armenia, but by the entire civilized world. Moreover, Azerbaijan, in fact, denies one of the main points of the tripartite statement, arguing that there is no Nagorno-Karabakh, there is no problem of Nagorno-Karabakh. Meanwhile, the President of Azerbaijan, with his signature in a tripartite statement, confirmed that Nagorno Karabakh is an entity. And as long as there is a tripartite statement, this issue cannot be ignored," he said in an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service. The RA Foreign Minister also drew attention to the fact that evidence of a gross violation of the first paragraph of the same tripartite statement of November 9 is the fact that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces invaded the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh on March 24, 2022, where they continue to remain to this day. "As for the unblocking of regional transport communications, we have repeatedly stated that Armenia itself is very interested in the success of this process," the Armenian Foreign Minister said.
At the same time, Mirzoyan expressed his conviction that the process would have been completed much faster if it were not for the constant baseless statements of the Azerbaijani authorities about the external territorial corridor, which have nothing to do with the agreements reached in the presence of a number of international partners.
"For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that the discussion on the issue of unblocking communications is actually taking place in a constructive environment, I hope that it will not fail due to incomprehensible political intrigues and will soon be successfully completed," he concluded.