There are numerous hero soldiers in the Armenian army, but unfortunately, there are soldiers, including officers, who failed to fulfill their duties and were taken prisoner, Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan told reporters in the parliament on Tuesday, commenting on the scandalous video recording of him talking about prisoners of war (POWs).
In the video, which emerged online earlier on Tuesday, he says: "I consider those POWs as non-existent”. According to Simonyan, the servicemen in question laid down their arms, fled and got lost, as a result of which they ended up in Azerbaijani captivity.
The parliament speaker noted that those who did not fulfill their military duties and were taken prisoner must be held to account.
As for the statement that "those POWs are non-existent” for him, Simonyan claimed that the video was edited. He explained that the part of the conversation was about the position of the state in various situations and negotiations. He regretted that some people introduced themselves as supporters, addressed questions to him and secretly recorded the conversation.
"During the conversation I noticed a young woman pointing her phone at me. I asked her not to film as I didn't want our conversation to be made public. She assured me that she was not recording," Simonyan said.