The parents of missing Armenian servicemen and prisoners of war held yet another protest in front of the government building on February 11. They tell CIVILNET that the government is not doing enough and that it needs to implement urgent steps to bring back the prisoners from Azerbaijan.
"We the parents are the ones who gathered the POWs' information."
"We ourselves have gone to military posts to find the bodies of soldiers," they say.
Siranush Sahakyan, the lawyer working on behalf of the prisoners’ families, says Azerbaijan may be holding as many as 223 other Armenian military prisoners and civilian hostages, including women.
However, it remains unclear how many of these 223 individuals taken prisoner remain alive as there have also been reports of widespread torture and execution of Armenian prisoners, both during and after the war. Azerbaijani officials acknowledged holding about 60 Armenian prisoners, not counting the ten released in the last two weeks.