“To begin, I do not think that Azerbaijan did not return Armenian prisoners of war just because they did not have maps of the minefields or because the Armenian side did not provide them with these maps. In other words, there are much deeper and more serious reasons, a consequence of which Azerbaijan does not wish to fully implement its responsibilities,” political scientist Narek Minasyan told Aravot Daily in an interview regarding the statement made by the Azerbaijani side on maps of minefields during the meeting between the Azerbaijani and Russian foreign ministers.
The Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeyhun Bayramov, expressed dissatisfaction about how the Armenian side is not providing Azerbaijan maps of Artsakh’s minefields, and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, when speaking about humanitarian issues, said that he discussed the issue of returning the bodies of fallen and missing soldiers, as well as the maps of the minefields. “In the past, steps have been initiated, and we expect that the issue will be resolved soon.”
Narek Minasyan
Narek Minasyan said, “It is another issue that the Russian side is doing everything possible to ensure that the process of carrying out responsibilities does not stop and so that we can record some progress in the processes that began in November. It is not a coincidence that the Russian side considers the resolution of humanitarian issues to be a priority now because humanitarian issues have not been resolved. The resolution of much more serious and heavyweight issues is not realistic now. And among those issues, the issue of returning Armenian POWs should be considered first, which is a rather sensitive issue for the Armenian side, as well as the protection of Armenian cultural monuments in Artsakh. In fact, Lavrov touched upon these issues, which is quite important. During Lavrov’s and Bayramov’s press conference, the Azerbaijani side once again claimed that Baku returned all POWs, but the Russian side, which somewhat took on the responsibility of being the mediator in the implementation of the November 9th agreement, said that the issue has not been resolved. Moreover, the Russian side stressed that the protection of cultural monuments and the return of POWs must take place without preconditions. This is important to note.”
Regarding the maps of minefields in Artsakh, the political scientist emphasized, “First, it is important to note that this issue is somewhat a false agenda. After the war, when it became obvious that Baku did not intend on carrying out its responsibility of returning Armenian prisoners of war and the international community’s pressure on Baku intensified, Azerbaijan tried to formulate a counterbalanced agenda. They announced on different platforms that the Armenian side is not providing maps of minefields. It is not a secret that there is a serious Azerbaijani propaganda campaign inside the country against Armenian POWs, labeling them terrorists. Therefore, the Russian side seems to be trying to maintain something for the Azerbaijani side so that it can have something to share with its society. However, as I said in the beginning, I do not think that the Azerbaijani side did not return Armenian POWs just because of the maps of minefields.”
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Luiza Sukiasyan
