The issue of prisoner of war exchange is heading into a dead end, because through the 9 November statement and subsequent processes the Armenian leadership has signalled to the international community that the problem has a political solution, and the structures dealing with legal and political matters realise that the platform legitimised by the Armenian authorities is the trilateral format, therefore this format is operational. This was stated by Siranush Sahakyan, the lawyer representing the interests of Armenian prisoners before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
“It seems the Armenian side conscientiously fulfilled all its obligations towards Azerbaijan, which were heavy and behind which stood violations of the rights of its own citizens. There was an expectation that at least after that, the only unfulfilled point of the 9 November statement — the return of prisoners of war — would take place. But it is not happening for political reasons; moreover, it seems the issue is heading into a dead end, because through the 9 November statement and subsequent processes our leadership has signalled to the international community that the problem has a political solution, and the structures dealing with legal matters realise that the platform legitimised by the Armenian authorities is precisely the trilateral format, therefore this format is operational. If it were not operational, it would not have been possible to implement heavy conditions through it, and if those have been implemented and the Armenian leadership continues its work within that platform, then the effectiveness of precisely that mechanism has been recognised. But it turns out it is effective only for those issues that harm Armenian interests, while regarding the realisation of the rights of one’s own citizens there is no movement.”
Sahakyan stated that Azerbaijan is trying to give a new status to Armenian prisoners of war: “It is trying to deprive Armenian prisoners of war of international protection and present them to the international community as terrorists, thereby justifying their non-return.”
According to Siranush Sahakyan, a legal solution to that problem is possible, but solutions in that direction are quite time-consuming.
“We have distinguished from the very beginning, understanding the reality very well, simply the legal processes are lengthy; they would have produced immediate results if our authorities had not made the prisoners the subject of political bargaining from the very beginning, because these are an independent issue; regardless of Azerbaijan’s will and desire, there are ways and possibilities to compel it, but since they made them so, the legal mechanisms have slowed down in this regard. Since the issue is heading into a dead end, I believe the only path will be the legal one or at least the involvement of a new person, a new side in the negotiations. As long as the negotiations are conducted with these approaches, we see no visible movement. No matter that the European Court, on the basis of our request, has granted the interim measure and also given priority to the cases, the process will still take 1–2 years.”
Siranush Sahakyan stated that at present the Armenian side has more than 120 prisoners of war: “These are the indisputable cases, and if we make the probable cases of capture the subject of discussion, then the number will be incomparably larger. There are also women; there are 2 confirmed cases that the state officially acknowledges and has not returned; in terms of status, perhaps they will be presented as mercenaries, terrorists.”
