Azerbaijan is intentionally politicizing the return of our prisoners of war (POWs) in an apparent effort to keep the issue beyond the scope of a legal settlement, Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said today, warning of the neighboring country’s attempts to seek justifications behind the January 11 trilateral statement signed in Moscow.
“The Azerbaijani authorities are obviously doing their best to distance this issue from legal tribunals. We must not let that happen, as POWs’ return does not – and cannot apparently – have any political significance. That’s a process dealing with the protection of human right; hence we must ensure their return without ever allowing them to link the process to the statement signed,” he told the members of the National Assembly.
The ombudsman also took the chance to highlight, yet another time, the numerous violations obseved during the border demarcation and delimitation activities. “We need commissions, specialized studies and appropriate legal grounds as it isn’t possible in this way to determine the borders mechanically – in either Syunik or Gegharkunik. We need preliminary estimates to know how many of our citizens may potentially suffer losses or how many of them may not have access to their land lots. This is the background information we were supposed to have before undertaking the border determination,” he added.