Today we have at least 23 prisoners, hostages, and other detained persons in Azerbaijan, and we are also trying to make every effort to resolve this issue. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this in an interview with Turkish media.

"But on the other hand, we must understand that this is happening in a situation where Azerbaijan, in fact, is also using this factor with escalation logic and for escalation purposes.

And when they say that the Armenian Government is not making the necessary efforts to resolve this issue, if people say something like that, it means they are sufficiently informed. If they are sufficiently informed, then they should take the next step and show what action the Armenian Government should take that would bring results, and the Government is not making that effort.

I generally understand this criticism and always say that as long as the efforts that the Government is making do not yield results, everyone can say that no effort is being made, because these efforts are mainly made at the diplomatic level. Why? Because in this genre, public statements should be very targeted and serve a specific purpose. And beyond certain cases of these public statements, they do not bring any benefit and, on the contrary, harm. I always bring the example of December 2023, when 32 of our captured compatriots returned to Armenia, and until the last second no one knew about the efforts that we were making and until the last second there were criticisms that the Government was not doing anything. And those people were right from their point of view, because from their point of view, the Government does something only in the case when that problem is solved.

As long as that issue is not resolved, anyone can claim that the Government is not making the necessary efforts, but until the official announcement in December 2023 about the return of our captured compatriots, until that last moment, there was a lot of harsh criticism that the Government was not doing anything. And the Government was doing it, and it became known only some time after those statements, and it became obvious, " - he said.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, this is a painful issue.

"But there is also the following: we see that Azerbaijan, unfortunately, is using this issue, and I say again, especially in the context of the peace process, when there are constant attempts to bring in additional escalation factors, including public statements about torture, visual justifications about prohibited means, which is of course disturbing, unacceptable, and the Government of Armenia has expressed a clear position on this issue," - he noted.