Ombudsman of Armenia calls on CE to help resolve problem of POWs

Officials from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) met relatives of prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers missed in action during the Karabakh war. However, the MoD’s building remains blocked by protesters. The Ombudsman appealed to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CE) concerning “the immediate return of all prisoners of war detained in Azerbaijan.”

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 8, relatives of the Armenian prisoners of war began a protest action at the airport after they received information that a plane, which had arrived from Azerbaijan, had not delivered any prisoners of war. Today, the relatives of the Armenian POWs joined the protesters in front of the building of the Armenian MoD.

During a meeting in Moscow with Vladimir Putin, Nikol Pashinyan pointed out the problem of returning POWs and noted that Azerbaijan had not yet returned Armenian soldiers.

Arman Tatoyan, Ombudsman of Armenia, appealed to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers concerning “the immediate return of all prisoners of war detained in Azerbaijan.”

“The Azerbaijani authorities violate international requirements by declaring prisoners of war ‘terrorists’ or ‘saboteurs’,” Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook page.

The Ombudsman of Armenia notes that military personnel and civilians were taken prisoner in the conditions of the armed conflict, and “therefore, they are all prisoners of war by status and should be immediately set free and returned to their homeland without any conditions.”