13:14,
YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. The leader of the Bright Armenia (LHK) opposition party of the Armenian parliament Edmon Marukyan has called on the international community to ramp up pressure on Azerbaijan to release the Artsakh War PoWs that are held in captivity months after the war ended.
Marukyan says that France and the United States should join the efforts of their OSCE Minsk Group partner Russia, as well as Armenia, in achieving the repatriation of the captives – one of the terms of the Nagorno Karabakh armistice.
The opposition leader says the entire international community should be consolidated in order to increase pressure on Baku, even achieve sanctions so that Azerbaijan returns the Armenian captives.
“In terms of humanitarian law they are wrong, they are wrong in terms of wartime rules of engagement, they are wrong even in terms of the rules by which the ceasefire was signed – Azerbaijan is wrong under all rules,” Marukyan said.
“I believe that the United States and France – as two Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – should join the efforts of Russia and Armenia, and on top of that the EU and other countries should also join. The civilized world must unite around this issue and pressure Azerbaijan into returning the Artsakh prisoners of war and civilian captives to Armenia,” he said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan