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At talks with Putin and Aliyev, Pashinyan raises the issue of POWs and invasion of Armenia’s sovereign territory

During trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan raised the issue of Armenian prisoners of war and other hostages held in Baku and the invasion of Armenia’s soveregin territory by Azerbaijani forces.

PM Pashinyan hailed the role of the Russian Federation and personally Vladimir Putin in ending last year’s war.

“After November 9, Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. It is obvious that the Russian peacekeepers, the Russian Federation, play a key role in stabilizing the situation in Nagorno Karabakh and the region, but I want to emphasize that, unfortunately, the situation is not as stable as we would like it to be,” the Prime Minister stated.

He noted that dozens of people have died on both sides since November 9 last year, incidents are taking place in Nagorno Karabakh.

“After May 12 this year, we actually have a crisis situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Our assessment is that the Azerbaijani troops have invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia. Of course, the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not delimited, but there is a state border, it is the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia,” PM Pashinyan said.

He disagreed with the President of Azerbaijan, who stated that all the points of the trilateral statement of November 9, except for the unblocking of communications, had already been implemented. Nikol Pashinyan stressed that there is also the issue of prisoners of war, hostages and other detainees, which is a “very important humanitarian issue.”

The Prime Minister reiterated Armenia’s willingness to start the process of border delimitation and demarcation.

“The issue of unblocking all transport and economic infrastructures is also very important for us, we are sincerely interested in solving these issues.,” he said.

“We believe that the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should take place within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, but I think that many issues can be discussed, resolved in trilateral and bilateral formats,” Pashinyan stated.

He commended the fact that direct contacts are being established betwwen Armenian and Azerbaijani officials and voiced hope that concrete decision would be reached for the sake of stability in the South Caucasus.

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