BAKU (News.az)–All five Armenians in captivity in Azerbaijani prisons have requested to be released to third countries, the Head of Azerbaijan’s State Commission for Prisoners of War told reporters on Wednesday.
Shahin Sailov said the Armenian POWs were seeking asylum abroad and that the relevant international organizations were aware of the petitions.
Sailov said that 18-20 people had returned from captivity on both sides in the past year. Two Azerbaijanis are now in captivity in Armenia and five Armenians in Azerbaijan.
“Problems have arisen in the return of Armenian citizens captured by Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani citizens captured and taken hostage by Armenia,” Sailov said.
He said there had been reports over the past year that the captives on both sides did not want to return home.
“Hard work for both sides lies behind the refusal of citizens not to return home. It takes a lot of work to arrange their departure for third countries. This situation has been created by the captives refusing to return home,” he said. “I think that the number of people using this method will fall in future because the process is very difficult. The process may stall completely and not move on.”