The Armenian captives serve as an additional leverage for Azerbaijan to achieve its political goals. This is what advocate Siranush Sahakyan, who represents the interests of Armenian prisoners of war in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said during the Armenian News-NEWS.am’s TALK TIME show.
According to her, the complete solution to the issue of return of Armenian captives is linked to political issues. “Based on the example of exchange of captives for mine maps and the conversation between Aliyev and Erdogan’s wife, it is clear that Azerbaijan is keeping the Armenians as hostages. Since there are political issues that remain unresolved, the Azerbaijani side is delaying their repatriation because there are still issues related to borders, demarcation, the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and other issues,” she said, adding that the Armenian authorities aren’t making serious allegations against Azerbaijan on international platforms.