The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will take place from June 30 to July 6. It will be conducted in a hybrid manner. The third sitting of the OSCE PA Committee on Democracy, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Affairs took place on June 30. OSCE PA Vice President Kari Henriksen presented a report on “Strengthening multilateralism in the context of the global crisis,” in which she expressed concern over the growing manifestations of discrimination and intolerance.
Violence and restrictions on journalists are also considered a serious challenge in the report. During the sitting of the commission, a remote ‘shootout’ took place between the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegates. The Armenian delegates raised the issue of the Armenian prisoners of war and that Aliyev does not want to return them. The Turkish-Azerbaijani delegates started talking about the need to provide maps of the minefields, delimitation, and demarcation.
A member of the Armenian delegation to the OSCE PA, Ani Samsonyan, stated, “Azerbaijan continues not to return Armenian prisoners of war and use them for political purposes.” Referring to the statements of the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan about the Armenian prisoners of war, Ani Samsonyan said, “They talk about Armenian prisoners of war, demanding that they be exchanged for maps of minefields as if they are something to be traded. This proves that Azerbaijan is involved in human trafficking; the issue of Armenian prisoners of war has become a topic of political bargaining.” Ani Samsonyan stressed that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces have come and settled in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and stated that they must withdraw immediately.
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Member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE PA Ulviyya Aghayeva, referring to the fact that there were casualties from a mine explosion in Karvachar, stated that Armenia is obliged to return the maps of the minefields to Azerbaijan. Referring to the return of Armenian prisoners of war, she said, “All Armenian prisoners of war were returned in accordance with the November 10 trilateral agreement. Members of a sabotage group sent to Azerbaijan for terrorism cannot be called prisoners of war.”
Maria Karapetyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the OSCE PA, assured that Armenia had returned all the prisoners of war to Azerbaijan, and Aliyev did not want to do that. She spoke about the reasons. “Aliyev does not want to return the Armenian prisoners of war because he wants to prolong the grief of the Armenian people, to show the Armenians living in Artsakh that it is not safe to live there.” She assured that Azerbaijan should not return the prisoners of war to Armenia in installments, but all of them must be returned immediately and in entirety.
Tatev Harutyunyan
