Over 100 Armenian citizens being held in Azerbaijan, Diaspora commissioner says
More than 100 Armenian citizens are being held in Azerbaijan, while the delay in resolving this issue postpones the start of a dialogue between Yerevan and Baku, Armenia’s High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan told RIA Novosti in an interview on Wednesday.
He noted that during his visit to Russia from February 24 to March 2, he discussed the issue with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko.
"The most important issue for us is the repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and captives from Azerbaijan. I also discussed this issue at the meeting held at the Russian Foreign Ministry ... I know there are more than a hundred of them, but I do not know the exact number. Therefore, among other things, we are conducting a dialogue, because we want to find out how many people are being held in Azerbaijani captivity, they [Baku, ed.] know it better.
“In the wake of the hostilities, it is clear that we have a list of people, who, as we know, are in Azerbaijan, and there is also a list of missing persons. And in this case, the numbers are constantly changing,” Sinanyan said.
According to him, Yerevan hopes that Moscow will continue to contribute to the settlement of the issue.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said earlier that Baku “has handed over all Armenian prisoners of war to Yerevan”, calling the remaining prisoners "saboteurs".