Baku has refused to implement the provisions stated in the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020 once again.
One of the provisions concerned the exchange of prisoners of war under the “all for all” principle, and another stated that “the sides stand in the positions that they held”. Baku is not only failing to implement these provisions, but it is also coming up with justifications in order to not exchange prisoners of war. Thus, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan made another statement in this regard during a joint briefing with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Ann Linde.
The following is a citation from Azerbaijani mass media: “The Armenians in captivity are not prisoners of war who need to be released within the scope of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020. They were sent to Azerbaijan after the signing of the truce and contrary to the statement of November 10 which implies the dislocation of Armenian troops from Nagorno-Karabakh. However, after the signing of the document, the authorities of Armenia sent over 60 servicemen from the Shirak Province of Armenia. Those servicemen carried out sabotage operations and killed soldiers of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, and they need to be held liable.”
Just a few days ago, and then through the interference of Chairperson of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko, the Azerbaijani authorities returned two women. According to the current information, a few more women are in captivity, and several prisoners were in captivity before November 10. The servicemen mentioned by the Azerbaijani minister were captured as a result of Azerbaijan’s ongoing aggression.
Nevertheless, after the adoption of the trilateral statement, Azerbaijan has been doing everything it can to distort the truth and trying to change the status of the captives, presenting them as “terrorists” and holding a “leverage” for pressure on the Armenian side.