In regard to the Armenian captives, there is a political issue and a psychological issue. This is what first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan said in an interview with Petros Ghazaryan on Armenian Public Television.

“The political issue is that Aliyev is certain that Nikol [Nikol Pashinyan] isn’t going to win the upcoming elections, and, taking advantage of Nikol’s weakness, he is trying to get as much as he can from him. The psychological issue is that Azerbaijan had been in a humiliating situation for 30 years. Defeat is a heavy burden. We Armenians were defeated recently, and you can see what psychological situation we are in. The Azerbaijanis were defeated and were demanding the same thing from the President of Azerbaijan that the Armenians are demanding from Nikol now. I don’t understand why Azerbaijan is taking such actions after its victory. The winner is usually generous towards the loser and doesn’t hate the latter,” he said.

The first President recalled that when both sides had prisoners of war after the Armenian side’s victory in the first war in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), he decided on his own that he had to return the captives of Azerbaijan.

“Members of the Cabinet told me not to transfer the captives, but I told them to be at ease since I knew Heydar Aliyev, and the Armenian captives were returned via a plane that same day. I have nothing else to add,” Ter-Petrosyan said.