We raised the issue of Armenian captives before Hajiyev. Naira Sultanyan, a member of Armenia’s civil society group that recently returned from the Azerbaijani capital Baku within the framework of the Peace Bridge initiative, told this to a press conference Monday—and referring to Hikmat Hajiyev, an aide to the president of Azerbaijan.

“We had even raised the issue during the Azerbaijanis’ visit, and we raised the issue also before Mr. Hajiyev. And let me add that no restriction was imposed on us—neither from the Armenian side nor the Azerbaijani side—so that we don't raise this issue. As you all probably know, we have raised this issue in international bodies, institutions and continue to raise this issue regularly. And due to the recent absence of the Red Cross [in Azerbaijan], another wave of letters have gone.

Nevertheless, speaking directly with the Azerbaijani side on this topic was a new situation for us. Especially sitting before Mr. Hajiyev, we tried to word our speech diplomatically and justify [it] delicately so that as a result, a sense of trust and mutual understanding would emerge between the sides, and as a result which we hope these problems will be solved more quickly.

With regret I must say that we did not receive a clear and concrete answer regarding the number, the names of the people, and so on. But here Armenia’s authorities have assured us that they are continuously making efforts. And Mr. Hajiyev, in turn, assured us, expressed confidence that a very active negotiation process is underway,” Sultanyan added.

Also, she noted that they have no inflated perception of their group’s influence. “We understand our limits, so to speak, very well. But nevertheless we all agree that as a result of this small visit, the meeting, the face-to-face conversations, we are probably contributing more to positive solutions than the opposite,” Sultanyan concluded.

On November 21, a group of Armenian civil society members traveled to the Azerbaijani capital Baku. Back on October 22, a discussion took place in the Armenian capital Yerevan with the participation of representatives of the civil societies of Armenia and Azerbaijan. And the aforesaid was a return visit in the context of normalizing bilateral relations.