Armenia is waiting for the results of exchange of war prisoners

The population of Armenia and representatives of the diaspora are waiting for the results of searching for lost people, exchanging the bodies of dead soldiers and returning war prisoners held in Azerbaijan after the end of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku is artificially delaying the process of exchange of war prisoners.

During the war, human rights defenders and the Armenian representation at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) worked on prisoners returning.

Now the effectiveness of measures directly depends on the share of participation of the President of Russia, who is the main mediator between the leadership of the two parties to the conflict.

The role of the OSCE Minsk Group in the diplomatic settlement is no longer of paramount importance. And, to be honest, I haven’t had it before.

As far as possible, the Armenian Defense Ministry increases the intensity of work with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Russian peacekeeping contingent. Information about the prisoners was provided to the ICRC and other international structures.

However, waiting is painful, people are desperate. In Yerevan, protests are held by relatives who have not received news of their relatives for several weeks.

An objective reason for the persistence of panic among the population is the distribution of deliberately edited video materials of unknown origin, which allegedly contain prisoners of war. Often, such videos have nothing to do with the military actions in Karabakh. It is extremely difficult to combat their spread. It is more productive to issue timely refutations and conduct educational work with the population of Armenia.

Not only Moscow, but also Washington, Berlin, Brussels have the opportunity, to put it mildly, to remind Baku of the obligation, firstly, to provide data on the condition of prisoners of war, and secondly, to ensure compliance with all humanitarian standards in relation to them, so that they are not tortured and received the necessary medical assistance.