On April 10, during a joint press conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, RA Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, in particular, declared.

“Unfortunately, there are still prisoners and detainees in Baku, and we think our position is the same. days ago, these people should be released, and we are sure that their release will only strengthen the established peace.

We continue our dialogue with Azerbaijan on this topic. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most important issues on our agenda. We continue to talk about this with international partners as well.

Yes, as you noticed, the end of the Red Cross activities in Azerbaijan has made the situation even more complicated in this regard, that is, we agree that the problem exists, and we continue our efforts in that direction. There is no news, this is the question that when there is news, immediately the whole society knows. The only news here might be the release of a new band.”

On April 10, the day of the 34th anniversary of the Maragha Genocide, so to speak, a 20-member delegation of Armenian civil society went to Azerbaijan through the demarcated and demarcated part of the land border (Kirants) and had a two-day discussion with Baku “civil society representatives” in Gabala, once again met Aliyev’s aide. Born in Ganja With Hikmet Hajiyev, we will refer to him later.

By the way, let us remind you that for 6 years, under the pretext of fighting against the coronavirus, Azerbaijan has been fighting with its neighbors keeps land borders closed. At the moment, there is a decision to keep it closed until July 1, 2026. Naturally, the reason is regional events, and it turns out that the Armenia-Azerbaijan land border along the Kirants section is the only one that is open, or is being opened if necessary.

And the members of the Armenian delegation that returned from Azerbaijan in Yerevan, in particular, the director of the Democracy Development Fund, Naira Sultanyan, said at the press conference that they talked about the prisoners and the people held in Baku in Azerbaijan.

“We emphasized that this issue does not fit into the logic of the peace process, that the peace process has progressed much further, and these issues must be resolved in order to guarantee the progress of the process.“, he noted.

Days after this, one of the Azerbaijani propaganda media, minval.az, published an article to publish in which, as a matter of fact, the official position of Aliyev or Baku was recalled, which was recently detailed we have touched on. 

What does Baku remind Yerevan and answer especially the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan?

“Their (former military-political leadership of Artsakh – M.P.) legal status is determined by court decisions based on “evidence”, not by political statements or diplomatic gestures.

Historical and international experience unequivocally confirms that “serious crimes” (quotes: MP) cannot become an object of political “trade”. Let’s remind that After the Nuremberg trials, the international community established the principle of inevitability of punishment as a basis for sustainable peace. And here it should be noted that the convicts were not released for the sake of reconciliation, but on the contrary, it was their punishment that became the cornerstone of the post-war legal system. Thus, the peace agenda cannot be built on the neglect of crimes and the release of convicted persons. It is possible only in the case of maintaining a balance between humanity and justice, where the key role belongs not to political expediency, but to the inevitability of punishment and respect for court decisions.” wrote the Azerbaijani media, noting that the release of the representatives of the former military-political leadership of Artsakh can be considered not humanism, but a refusal of the principle of justice.

Of course, Baku is lying when it does not attribute this issue to political expediency, it will be resolved according to political expediency. That is another question today the release of the former military-political leadership of Artsakh is considered as an internal political or internal issue of the country, and tries to assure that the release of non-ordinary Armenians held in Baku can undermine the faith of the citizens of Azerbaijan in the state institutions of the country, otherwise, the fabrication of accusations against the former leaders of Artsakh can come to light, which is definitely not beneficial to Aliyev at the moment, nor does he have a problem of looking “good” today. Let’s not say that the manifestations of good will in the world today do not have a serious character role, when international law is destroyed and force gives birth to law, or economic interest.

According to that, can we say that at this moment Aliyev does not see the need to show “good will” in order to maintain his own power within his country, and indirectly puts the responsibility of his “Nuremberg trial” on his own citizens as well, so that for political convenience, if he decides to release the former military and political leadership of Artsakh in exchange for something, he will condition it also on the wishes of ordinary Azerbaijanis. That is, everything is not as smooth as it is presented, including at the level of societies. On the other hand, so that ordinary Azerbaijanis stop seeing Armenians as enemies, here, of course, Pashinyan logically, the Armenian society has to do it first.

Does Aliyev put pressure on his people to become extremely peace-loving, does he force them to forget “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, like Nikol Pashinyan, of course not. Instead, Aliyev always has something to say to the Armenian society and Nikol Pashinyan in this context. For example, Aliyev’s assistant Hikmet Hajiyev, like him reported At the meeting with the members of the Armenian delegation that went to Azerbaijan, he again spoke about the Armenian “revanchist” forces.

“During the meeting, it was noted that the presence of “revanchist” forces in the internal political “landscape” of Armenia, along with their calls for war, creates a risk of returning the region to the turbulent state of the late 1980s and early 1990s,” Hajiyev emphasized, adding that the Armenian society wants peace, which creates a basis for them to hope that “the forces that assumed the role of “spoilers” will eventually fail to achieve peace.” in their attempts to undermine the agenda.”

It is a familiar phrase that we hear almost every day in this pre-election period, as they say, without comment.

If we return to Aliyev’s compulsion on his own people, in most cases it refers to the resettlement of Azerbaijani citizens in the occupied Artsakh territories. On one occasion, we wrote that many people return to Baku after a short time from their assigned places. This is a separate discussion topic.

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