The number of casualties, at the moment, is 3,705, the number of missing is 268, we have confirmed data on 60 captives, and an assumption that another 110 people are taken captive [by Azerbaijan]. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is the ruling Civil Contract Party’s candidate for Prime Minister, stated this during a televised debate ahead of Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections in Armenia. At the same time, he expressed bewilderment that the opposition repeatedly exaggerates the numbers of casualties and captives as a result of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war last fall.

Also, he said that 89 Armenian captives were returned so far, and six of them were taken prisoner before the war.

Pashinyan noted that only a small part of the minefield maps was handed over to Azerbaijan, and these maps were not exchanged for captives, but rather they responded to a humanitarian step with a humanitarian step.

The leader of the Freedom Party, ex-PM Hrant Bagratyan, expressed bewilderment that even seven months after the war it is not clear whether these persons are missing or dead or taken prisoner.

The leader of the 5165 movement, Karin Tonoyan, expressed a conviction that the incumbent Armenian authorities are not doing anything to have the Armenian captives returned.

And Artak Galstyan, representing the Armenian Homeland Party, reminded that it was published on the internet that 1,064 families had been compensated as the families of the missing. But Pashinyan clarified that after that the bodies of the fallen or the living were found, so this number was reduced to 268.