YEREVAN (TASS) — Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Anna Nagdalyan has dismissed as lie a statement of Azerbaijani top diplomat Jeyhun Bayramov that the country had handed over all prisoners of war in accordance with its commitments, the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s press service said.

Mrs. Nagdalyan said:

This is another lie of the Azerbaijani side on this topical humanitarian issue. The Azerbaijani foreign minister’s statement runs counter to the data of other respective bodies of this country, which confirmed the presence of dozens of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan, who were captured both during the fighting and after the ceasefire was established.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman stated that Azerbaijan was not providing data on the Armenian prisoners of war to the European Court of Human Rights, which considers this issue as part of an interstate case Armenia vs Azerbaijan. According to the press service, “currently provisional measures are being carried out on 188 captured Armenians against Azerbaijan.”

Furthermore, Mrs. Nagdalyan stated:

I must emphasize that failure to comply with interim measures is tantamount to a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. I would like to add that the eighth provision of the November 9, 2020 statement applies to all prisoners of war and persons held as hostages. With such statements, the Azerbaijani side proves that it deliberately does not fulfil this Trilateral Statement. Holding Armenian prisoners as hostages undermines the implementation of the agreements set out in the trilateral statement.