Families of Armenian soldiers who went missing during the last year’s war with Azerbaijan, gathered outside of the government building on June 28, demanding that acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meets them.
The protesters demanded that the government takes measures to return soldiers kept in the Azerbaijani captivity and find bodies of soldiers who lost their lives.
Pashinyan refused to meet the protesters, while they were met by one of his assistants.
The Armenian authorities have reported the return of 69 Armenians from the Azerbaijani captivity since the end of the war in autumn. Yerevan also said that 200 Armenians are being kept in the Azerbaijani captivity, the claim that was denied by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
Baku said that Azerbaijan has no Armenian political prisoners, adding that over 60 Armenians kept in Azerbaijan are those sent by Yerevan after the signing of the November 10 peace deal, thus they don’t fall under the category of prisoners of war. Three of these 60 men were returned to Armenian on May 4.
It should be noted that on May 31, a protest erupted in Yerevan after images emerged showing bodies of over 200 soldiers being stored in refrigerators in Armenia.
According to Armenian reports of April, bodies of 1,539 Armenia soldiers were found from November 13 to early April.
Pashinyan earlier acknowledged that around 4,000 Armenian soldiers were killed during the war with Azerbaijan.
