Armenia`s premier responds to criticism over Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan

ArmInfo. As regards the Armenian  prisoners in Baku, Yerevan is concerned over the situation, Armenia's  Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated in an interview with Turkish media  outlets. 

"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.

On March 4, Ruben Vardanyan's international lawyer, Jared Genser,  appealed to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with a request to  do much more to protect Vardanyan and other Armenian political  prisoners and POWs held in Azerbaijan. In a statement attached to the  post in X, Genser put forward a number of proposals, including making  a public statement (holding a press conference, publishing an  article) about Azerbaijan's priority of releasing political prisoners  and POWs, as well as the political background of their detention;  asking the ICRC and the OSCE, embassies of friendly countries in Baku  to send observers to the trial of Ruben Vardanyan and others, even  asking Azerbaijan to allow the dispatch of observers from the  Armenian government; sending a personal envoy to Baku and launching a  humanitarian channel to negotiate the release of political prisoners  and POWs; privately stating that their release should occur before or  simultaneously with the completion of the deal (signing of the peace  treaty); ask the US - represented by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio,  France - Emmanuel Macron and the EU - Kaja Kallas, as well as the UN  - Antonio Guterres and Volker Turk (UN Commissioner for Human Rights)  to facilitate the release of political prisoners and prisoners of  war, etc.

RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's interview with Turkish media  outlets in available here: 

https://www.primeminister.am/en/interviews-and-press-conferences/item/2025/03/13/Nikol-Pashinyan- Interview/