The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported yesterday that the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives called on Azerbaijan to release the Armenian prisoners of war held in Baku.

The commission voted 44 in favor and 7 “against” to call on Azerbaijan to immediately and unconditionally release all Armenian hostages, amending H.R. In Bill 9087 (Law on Diplomatic Service of the House of Representatives).

The amendment, which was supported by the Armenian Committee of America, was presented by the vice-chairman of the Armenian Affairs Committee of the Congress, Congressman Brad Sherman (Democrat, California), with the support of the chairman of the committee, Brian Mast (Republican, Florida).

What response can this statement receive in Azerbaijan and to what extent can it play a positive role in the release of Armenian prisoners?

According to Tatevik Hayrapetyan, expert on Azerbaijan issues: As a rule, Azerbaijan usually reacts quite aggressively to such calls from different countries.

“Nevertheless, the fact remains that if we want to keep this topic on the agenda and at some point have a result and at some point have the release of prisoners, then international pressure is an important tool for that.

Prior to that announcement by the Senate, information was published yesterday that the case of Ruben Vardanyan was appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. Decisions at the level of the US Senate or the parliaments of other countries are political calls, parallel to which the international legal instruments should be used as a means of pressure.

Azerbaijan knows very well that this whole case is fabricated, fabricated, if it had any legal evidence regarding our prisoners, regarding all the accusations with which it accuses them, then, I assure you, it would go directly to the international court. But as you can see, the whole trial is being carried out by closed, domestic secret means, without publicity, because there is no fact and legal process.” of 168.am said Tatevik Hayrapetyan in a conversation with

According to the expert, the aim of the head of Azerbaijan is to launch proceedings against Armenia through Armenian prisoners and hostages held illegally in Baku, to try to accuse Armenia of various crimes against Azerbaijan.

“Various public sources state that within the framework of these processes, some sums were calculated against Armenia, amounts of “caused damage”, etc. At the same time, the whole goal is to label our self-determination and self-defense movement in Artsakh as “terrorism”.

In other words, Azerbaijan’s logic is as follows: if we are massacred, we should not resort to self-defense, because then it means that we are “terrorists”. The voice message of Davit Manukyan, who is illegally detained in Baku, proves that all this is directed against Armenia, which we talked about,” added our interlocutor.

Tatevik Hayrapetyan replied to the question whether the RA government would take any supporting steps to the statement of the US House of Representatives at the state level, even if it raised the issue on various international platforms: the Armenian side, in the hands of Nikol Pashinyan, if in the past it was at least pretending to keep the topic on the agenda or talking to different partners, today it is not even there.

“If you remember, in May of this year, high-ranking European officials came to Yerevan. Before those meetings, journalists asked him whether he was going to discuss the issue of prisoners with those officials, the answer was negative, because Nikol Pashinyan considers that issue to be part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani bilateral agenda.

If he does not create obstacles, he will certainly not welcome these steps,” stressed Tatevik Hayrapetyan.

The expert is sure that in order to return the captives to the homeland, the works must be carried out in several directions. First of all, this problem should remain one of the important issues of Armenia’s internal agenda.

In other words, whenever peace is talked about, that topic must be clearly stated.

“Our diaspora structures, international human rights defenders have a lot to do, unfortunately, the burden rests entirely on them. The same Ruben Vardanyan is quite famous in the Diaspora, God forbid, if another well-known figure appeared in such a situation, Ruben Vardanyan would have taken an active role. That issue should be perceived as a matter of honor,” emphasized Tatevik Hayrapetyan.

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