The Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe today held a session during which it considered the report on the humanitarian crisis that emerged in Artsakh after the war. Once again, deputy of the Prosperous Armenia Party Naira Zohrabyan raised the issue of Armenian prisoners of war who are still being kept as political hostages in Azerbaijan and called on the Council of Europe to stop making rhetorical statements and go from expressing kind wishes to taking specific actions.

In her speech, Zohrabyan stated the following: “A long time has passed since our last discussion, but the humanitarian crisis remains in Artsakh after the bloody war and has grown deeper. Armenian prisoners of war and captured women are still in captivity, and I think you understand what each day of captivity means for them. Fortunately, yesterday, Maral Najarian, one of the captured Armenian women, was released and is now with her sons. A few days ago, the President of Azerbaijan declared that there are on more Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan and that the other captives are terrorists and saboteurs.

This is an embarrassingly unscrupulous statement that violates all international conventions. Based on the most approximate calculations, even at this moment, there are over 200 Armenian captives in Azerbaijan, including women. No state had ever vulgarly interfered in the domestic affairs of another state, just like Azerbaijan and Turkey are interfering now, linking the issue of captives to the domestic political situation in Armenia. This is simply inadmissible, and I call on the Assembly to not let Azerbaijan turn the issue of prisoners of war into a subject of political speculations.

I had sent to the rapporteur videos downloaded from Azerbaijani websites and the media showing how Armenian soldiers and captured elderly people are beheaded alive. What has happened and what is going on is horrible and must be stopped as soon as possible. I address the attending Azerbaijani delegates and tell them to address the female speaker of their country’s parliament who would always talk about human and women’s rights during the Committee’s sessions. Release Armenian prisoners of war and women captives and don’t turn the lives of people, soldiers and captured women into a political bonus! This is inadmissible.”