16:28, 2 January 2022

Armenia: POWs' relatives spend New Year's Eve at the government building

At night on January 1, parents of the Armenian soldiers captured as prisoners of war (POWs) during the Karabakh war held a sit-in picket outside the government building in Yerevan, demanding the release of their sons. There was no authorities' response to their action.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that relatives of the perished and missing Armenian soldiers had repeatedly protested, stating that the authorities were hiding the real number of soldiers kept in Azerbaijani captivity. Thus, on December 8, 2021, they blocked a street in Yerevan.

On August 11, Artak Zeinalyan, a human rights defender, stated that Azerbaijan admitted the existence of only 45 Armenian POWs, although Armenia presented the data on 280 of them to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The sit-in picketers spent the night on December 31 at the government building, but no one came out to them, said one of the prisoners' parents. Their children meet the second New Year in a row in Azerbaijani captivity, the "News.am" writes.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 1, 2022 at 11:46 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: CK correspondent