AZERBAIJAN ALSO HOLDS ARMENIAN CIVILIANS AS CAPTIVES – NGO PRESIDENT

16:04 * 23.02.15

The president of an Armenian NGO of missing Karabakh war veterans on
Monday shared her expectations of a Government decision to declare
June 29 Day of the Disappeared.

Rima Arakelyan, who is also a member of a commission tasked with
arranging the return of captives, hostages and missing people,
complained particularly about the impossibility of having meetings or
maintaining a direct contact with Azerbaijan over handover procedures.

She said that Azerbaijan holds not only Armenian prisoners of war
but also civilians as captive.

“We are not able to find common language with Azerbaijan. We have
demonstrated good will, yet it isn’t possible to work with them.

That’s their policy and diplomacy that has been continuing ever since
the war period,” Arakelyan noted.

She added that the commission works to the best of its efforts to
manage the return. “We collaborate with the Red Cross, which operates
a similar office also in Azerbaijan and appears to be the only mediator
between us,” she said.

Samara Grigoryan, a parent of a missing Karbakh freedom fighter also
attending the news conference, said they are still hopeful that the
Government will spare no effort to return their sons.

“There are both captive and people who have disappeared or died,
but we hope that at least one of them will return. No mother thinks
that her son has died. We work with consolidated efforts to return
everybody. And our Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan is doing
everything possible to bring back at least someone,” she added.