Pashinyan reveals verified/unverified number of Armenian PoWs in Baku

PanARMENIAN.Net - Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has spoken about 60 Armenian prisoners of war still being held in Azerbaijan, which he said is a verified number, but added that information about 110 more captives requires confirmation.

Pashinyan made the remarks during election debate on Public Television on Thursday, June 17. No official information has been published about the real number of prisoners of war and other detainees since the end of hostilities.

The acting PM also noted that 3,705 soldiers were killed in the 44-day war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), while 268 people are missing.

Azerbaijan is refusing to return all Armenian prisoners of war, in violation of the statement on the cessation of hostilities signed by the parties in November 2020. The Armenian side has information about some 200 Armenians still in Azerbaijan’s captivity, but Azeri President Ilham Aliyev claims that persons being kept in Baku are not PoWs, but “terrorists and saboteurs”. At least 19 of the hundreds of Armenian captives have been tortured and killed, according to their lawyers.