17:24, 9 August 2022

After night outdoor, relatives of Armenian POWs stop their protest

Residents of Armenia, demanding the return of their relatives from Azerbaijani captivity. Photo https://news.am/rus/news/715400.html

Residents of Armenia, demanding the return of their relatives from Azerbaijani captivity, spent the night near the government building and stopped the action after they agreed to schedule a meeting with the Prime Minister.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that relatives of the Armenian soldiers who were taken prisoner of war (POWs) after the end of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh have repeatedly held actions demanding their return home. On August 8, they demanded a meeting with Nikol Pashinyan, the Premier.

The participants of the sit-down picket stated that authorities are indifferent to the fate of their relatives.

"We haven't met the Premier for a year now; he didn't want to meet us. Time passes, but our guys stay there," said the father of one of the POWs.

The protesters noted that the POWs' situation is getting worse day by day.

In the morning, the protesters agreed with an official from the Premier's office about the end of the sit-in picket. Authorities promised to announce the date of the meeting with the Premier, the "NEWS.am" writes.

In December 2020, a month after the end of the full-scale hostilities in Karabakh, a total of 64 soldiers from several Karabakh combat posts, mostly residents of the Shirak Region of Armenia, were taken POWs. Some of them were returned to their homeland; others were prosecuted in Azerbaijan for espionage, terrorism and illegal border crossing. On May 25, 2022, Pashinyan announced that 39 citizens of Armenia were still in Azerbaijani captivity.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 9, 2022 at 12:12 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot