Members of the Interparliamentary Group for Relations with the Republic of Armenia at the Lithuanian Seimas has adopted a statement calling on Azerbaijan to speed up the exchange of bodies, prisoners of war and hostages and their transfer to Armenia, Armenia’s Ambassador to Lithuania Tigram Mkrtchyan informs.

Based on the November 19th declaration by the EU High Representative on Nagorno Karabakh on behalf of the EU, the commitments declared by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the statement of the European External Action Service on the release of prisoners dated January 29 and the February 1st statement by the Political Assembly of the European People’s Party, the lawmakers call on Azerbaijan to speed up the exchange of bodies, prisoners of war and hostages, to suspend immediately the criminal proceedings against them and to transfer them to Armenia.

“The unconditional and immediate return of the prisoners will be one of the first steps towards restoring a climate of trust between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We also call on the European Union institutions to raise this humanitarian issue consistently in the context of current and future relations with Azerbaijan,” members of the group say.