YEREVAN. – The issue of POWs arose as a result of PM Nikol Pashinyan's personal guilt, personal mistake, and personal betrayal. Armen Ashotyan, Vice-Chairman of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told this to a press conference Monday, adding that when signing the November 9 statement, Pashinyan had to set a deadline for the exchange of captives.

Ashotyan stressed that Pashinyan should not have fulfilled the timeframe set by that trilateral statement until the return of all POWs. "Third, he opened all the cards of Armenia on the issue of captives and even extradited the Azerbaijanis convicted of, in prison for murder in Kelbajar, who were not prisoners of war at all, were murderers. He entered into negotiations to unblock communications without fulfilling the point of return of captives. Why did he give all the lands accurately, thousands of kilometers, without getting our boys from Azerbaijan?"

The RPA official stated that at least in the political sense he considers Nikol Pashinyan a traitor, as all his actions are treacherous. "Even if a person is an idiot, is crazy, is incompetent, he would take the right steps at least once in a while. Throughout his actions, he leaves a stable impression that all this is the result of his political will," Ashotyan emphasized.

"The topic of prisoners of war will be the next ‘creation’ of the Nikol-Aliyev duo. I am confident that when Armenia enters the pre-election stage, [Azerbaijani president] Aliyev will send some prisoners of war to Yerevan to raise Nikol's [popularity] rating," Armen Ashotyan said.