Not possible to return Armenians held in Azerbaijan through third countries, Armenia FM says

I do not like to constantly talk about the work being done to return the persons being held in Azerbaijan. The Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ararat Mirzoyan, stated this during Wednesday’s question-and-answer session with the government, in the National Assembly of Armenia, answering the question of opposition MP Lilit Galstyan.

“Who needs your efforts if there is no result? The result is quite concrete: are the detained persons being released or not?” Mirzoyan said, not hiding his indignation. According to him, a lot of work has been done since the release of the last group of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.

At the same time, however, Mirzoyan did not want to make some statements from the parliament rostrum, since for this he would have to mention the names of other countries and put them in an uncomfortable position. “I will harm our relations with those countries… They say, ‘Turn to a third country, for example, Madagascar.’

Supposedly, let the representative of Madagascar go and visit the Armenian prisoners [in Azerbaijan]. That is, they have thought about it, but we [i.e. Armenia] haven’t? Don’t we have any connections? We have applied, but there is no result,” the foreign minister said, addressing Armenia’s opposition.

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