Message from Nikol Pashinyan to Azerbaijan: “We are ready to exchange prisoners” – last minute world news

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made an end-of-year assessment as 2023 ends. In response to questions posed by the Armenian people online, Pashinyan also touched on the situation of Armenian prisoners in the hands of Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan said: “The issue of prisoners is at the center of our attention. I must express my regret that this purely humanitarian issue is being used for political purposes.”

Message to Azerbaijan

Pashinyan indicated that they will be flexible on this issue and are ready to work with Azerbaijan for the return of the prisoners. He said: “Negotiations are one of these ways. We also expressed our readiness to exchange Azerbaijanis convicted in Armenia for our prisoners.” We added a human touch to this issue.”

Pashinyan noted that they had previously submitted requests to courts and international organizations regarding this situation, and said: “We are not satisfied with the situation regarding the return of prisoners. But we have been able to recover more than 100 Armenian prisoners since 2020.”

Speaking about the migration of the population living here to Armenian territory after Azerbaijan regained its territory in Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan said: “We accept these people to our territory. If returning to Nagorno-Karabakh does not seem possible, we will do everything to ensure that they remain in Armenia and do not Their emigration from our country.”

“We will make decisions in accordance with the state interests of our country.”

In response to a question about whether Armenia would withdraw from the CSTO recently, Pashinyan said: “We have the political will to make these and other decisions based on the interests of the Armenian state. The same applies to relations with the CSTO.” He added: “We will only decide in line with the interests of the state in our country.”