Hasmik Harutyunyan: What kind of peace treaty can we talk about when there are prisoners of war and hostages?

The state does not fulfill its obligations in terms of returning the Armenian prisoners held in Baku and searching for citizens considered missing, protester Hasmik Harutyunyan told Alpha News. A protest was held today outside the UN office in Yerevan by families of soldiers held in Azerbaijani prisons and missing during the Artsakh war.

Ms. Hasmik, who joined the protest from the city of Hrazdan, does not have expectations from international structures, but she did not want to stay silent.

“Sitting at home and doing nothing, we become complicit in this inaction. To be honest, I don’t have high expectations from international structures. We remember how Artsakh was under blockade for nine months and then how the Armenians were displaced. No one cared. But we can’t just sit back. Today, together with friends, we came to support people who had not heard from their relatives for years.

We, as Armenians, are obliged to at least express our protest to international structures in this way. Shame on those heads of state who are going to sign a so-called peace treaty. What kind of peace treaty can we talk about when there are prisoners of war and hostages? Our children are in Baku prisons today, lonely, abandoned, and humiliated, and we want to take this responsibility upon ourselves for the peace of our conscience,” Ms. Hasmik notes.