13:17, 9 April, 2021

YEREVAN, APRIL 9, ARMENPRESS. The Chair of Parliament’s Defense and Security Committee Andranik Kocharyan believes that the reason behind a failed transfer of PoWs is that some agreements have been violated.

Kocharyan was speaking about the arrival of an aircraft which was supposed to repatriate Armenian PoWs from Azerbaijan but landed without them in Yerevan on April 8.

“Of course they didn’t know anything,” Kocharyan told reporters when asked whether or not the Armenian government was aware that the aircraft wasn’t carrying any prisoners. “I assume that Muradov was on board the aircraft,” he said, referring to the Russian peacekeeping mission’s commander in Nagorno Karabakh Lt. General Rustam Muradov. “And this means that there were agreements which have been violated. If there were no agreements, then why would the aircraft fly there.”

He said he doesn’t know the reasons of the failure but assumes that Azerbaijan is once again trying to change the “rules of gameplay.”

Kocharyan says he believes that Azerbaijan is not releasing the PoWs with the intention to cause tension in Armenia. “We will continue the process of returning prisoners in different ways,” he said. The lawmaker reminded that this issue was raised during the latest Pashinyan-Putin meeting in Moscow. “This was a step where we clearly saw that Russia tried to contribute its participation in the solution of the issue. This is why Lt. General Muradov departed to accompany the prisoners back to Armenia.”

Andranik Kocharyan reiterated that the repatriation of the prisoners will be completed, because this issue is the primary obligation of the government.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan