YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan continues to illegally and by force keeping hundreds of Armenian POWs and civilians in detention, ARMENPRESS reports President of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said in an international conference themed ‘’Global challenges and threats in the light of the pandemic. Terrorism and extremism’’.

‘’The exchange of hostages and those kept by force, as well as bodies of victims is one of the mandatory points of the November 9, 2020 trilateral declaration. This process has to start immediately after signing. Moreover, there was an agreement that the exchange of the hostages, those kept by force and bodies of victims should have taken place according to the principle of ‘’all for all’’. But after over 4 months we document that the Azerbaijani side grossly violates the agreements’’, the President of the National Assembly of Armenia said, adding that Azerbaijan continues to keep by force hundreds of Armenian POWs and civilians.

Ararat Mirzoyan added that there are irrefutable and confirmed facts of how many hostages have been tortured and even killed. ‘’Those crimes have been video-recorded and spread in social networks and have been broadly accepted by the Azerbaijani public. It’s obvious that the delay in the process of return of the captives by Azerbaijan is exclusively artificial and creates serious obstacles for the implementation of November 9, 2020 declaration, as well as the announcement of January 11 of this year’’, Mirzoyan emphasized.

The President of the National Assembly assured that the Armenian side has fully implemented its commitments, but Azerbaijan consistently refuses to implement the agreements of the trilateral declaration, manipulates over the lists of prisoners of war and detainees, invents artificial criminal cases and, in general, continues his policy of xenophobia, thus hindering the process of stabilization and unblocking of infrastructure in the South Caucasus.

Such an attitude towards the agreements cannot leave our partners that are interested in peace and stability in our region indifferent. We are confident that immediate and practical measures will contribute to the solution of this extremely important issue’’, the head of the Armenian parliament said.