14:32, 8 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ambassador to Ukraine Vladimir Karapetyan spoke about the Armenian prisoners of war who are still being held captive in Azerbaijan during an interview with the Public TV and Radio of Ukraine.
Ambassador Karapetyan said that Azerbaijan confirms that it is holding 38 Armenian servicemen in captivity, whereas Armenia finds that another 26 servicemen must be in the number of the captives.
He emphasized that there was an agreement on the highest level that the exchange of prisoners must take place "all for all". The Armenian side handed over all prisoners, even convicted criminals who were serving prison sentences for unrelated crimes, including murder.
The Armenian side has documents and video evidence, as well as the testimonies of former PoWs who’ve already returned to Armenia proving that Azerbaijan is holding another 26 servicemen captive in addition to the 38.
Karapetyan added that Azerbaijan released some of the Armenian servicemen in exchange for the minefield maps.
“As a sign of goodwill gesture the Armenian leadership handed over the minefield maps which were in our possession back from the 1990s, from the years of the first Nagorno Karabakh war,” the Ambassador said.
Ambassador Karapetyan said that the transferred minefield maps have significantly decreased the landmine-related fatal incidents.
“Despite the fact that Azerbaijan has publicly and numerously complained about the accuracy of these maps, after we gave it to them the number of explosions decreased significantly, and only one or two fatal incidents happened. Our maps are very accurate, but the time that passed must be taken into account.”