Azerbaijan repatriates Armenian soldier
The Armenian Defence Ministry said on 26 May that Private Eduard Martirosov, who crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on 23 April and was detained by Azerbaijani troops, has been repatriated.
It said the agreement on his repatriation was reached during a trilateral meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders with the president of the European Council on 22 May in Brussels. It was also mediated by the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh, Major-General Andrey Volkov.
In December 2021, Nikol Pashinyan said that the Armenian government was working for the repatriation of Armenian hostages held unlawfully in Azerbaijan daily, and this topic was raised in every conversation. During the parliament-Cabinet Q&A session, the Prime Minister responded to a question from MP Artsvik Minasyan of the "Armenia" faction. Minasyan reportedly mentioned that they started a conversation about the POWs and invited Prime Minister Pashinyan, but he did not show up. "First, let me bring the freshest example when our government raised the issue at the International Court of Justice. I think that the court made a very important record. Of course, the court did not demand the immediate release of prisoners of war, hostages, or other detainees for one reason only - the absence of any expression of purely racial discrimination, but on the other hand, stated that those captured during hostilities should be repatriated under international law. As for the rest, we do daily work through diplomacy, the issue is discussed in all negotiations, we make all efforts,” Pashinyan said.