Siranuysh Sahakyan, seeing the competition with Russia, thinks that this may be a factor and at this stage, in order not to be discredited by the Russian side, they may not carry out the return through the mediation of European structures, but wait for it to be carried out under the auspices of the Russian Federation.
“Naturally, in the background and during such high level meetings, it is possible to raise the issue of return. I don’t rule out that possibility, it’s just that there is competition of a different nature in the region, and against this background, it was not necessary to ignore the statement made by the Russian Federation, when they openly accused the European structures of stealing laurels in order to advance geopolitical interests in the South Caucasus.”
After the Nikol Pashinyan-Charles Michel-Ilham Aliyev meeting, there will be progress regarding the return of the Armenian prisoners of war, said Siranuysh Sahakyan, the representative of the interests of the Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan at the ECHR and human rights activist. On August 31, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, European Council President Charles Michel, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held a four-hour meeting behind closed doors in Brussels.
According to the press service of the RA Prime Minister after the Brussels meeting, issues related to the release of POWs and the clarification of the fate of the missing, border demarcation and border security, regional de-encirclement, the settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, and the Nagorno-Karabakh problem were discussed at the tripartite meeting. However, no details were mentioned. Siranuysh Sahakyan stated that the West and Russia are competing for positioning in the South Caucasus; each tries to increase its influence on Armenia and Azerbaijan in the context of this conflict and to visualize, one of the forms of manifestation of which is to solve problems related to the relations between the two countries, including the prisoners of war.
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Siranuysh Sahakyan continued, “I do not rule out that after this meeting, there will be cases of return. Just in the conditions of this competition, when, for example, the Azerbaijani side works more closely with the Russian Federation or the Armenian side, they should not suddenly try to give laurels to the European structures and refrain from new repatriation cases in this specific episode. Although you already know that return took place with the efforts of the European Union and European countries.
On the other hand, we cannot rule out that Europe and Azerbaijan, which now work strategically in the energy sector and have overlapping interests, will go to big deals, which is generally not honorable for European institutions, considering that they have avoided establishing a partnership with corrupt, authoritarian and with authorities involved in crimes, and Aliyev’s government is just like that. He is also involved in ethnic cleansing. But, if they go for that deal, it is likely that in order to save their reputation, they will go for a deal and agree that the repatriation will be under the auspices of European structures. The problem is that these are developments in the conditions of political deals. We also do not rule out returns with the efforts of European structures in the background of these meetings, but we should also see how the relations between Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan are progressing.”
Siranuysh Sahakyan answered the question: what is new in the legal field in parallel with the legal proceedings of the Armenian prisoners of war? “There is no movement at the level of decisions, but procedurally there is an exchange of communications. We constantly receive information through the court about their legal positions on the part of Azerbaijan, regarding the ongoing actions. We regularly present new details in ongoing cases, new petitions, new evidence, and facts. We also object, refuting Azerbaijan’s positions, even demonstrating the approach of falsifying evidence. Here, the process is proceeding normally, but we have no new decisions.”
Siranuysh Sahakyan stated that we have 38 confirmed prisoners of war and 80 unconfirmed prisoners in Azerbaijan. To our clarification, is it possible that there will be the return of Armenian prisoners of war after the Brussels meeting, she answered, “Yes, I don’t rule it out, just when I see the competition with Russia, which also condemns and criticizes attempts to take laurels, I think this can be a factor at this stage, if, for example, the Russian role is large, in order not to discredit the Russian side, they may not carry out the return through the mediation of European structures, but wait for it to be carried out under the auspices of the Russian Federation, but I also do not rule out that the European structures do it, because they are making gas deals with Azerbaijan, the cooperation should be close, in order to save their reputation relatively among the Armenian society, it is possible to solve the humanitarian problem.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
