VIDEO: Do you think the captives will forgive you or not? Journalist asks Pashinyan

The Prime Minister continues to answer journalists' questions, one of which was about the captives. A reporter inquired: “You stated back in 2021 during one of your campaigns that the captives would forgive us after 1-2 months in Azerbaijani prisons. It has been over 2 years now, do you think the captives will forgive you or not?”

“I do not rule out the possibility that they may not forgive,” the Prime Minister replied. He added that Azerbaijan is attempting to use the captives as a political bargaining chip, not specifically, but rather as a tool of pressure on Armenia.

In response to the observation that Armenia also had such a tool—the maps of mined areas—but refused to use it by handing the maps over to Baku, Pashinyan responded: “I do not consider that to be a wrong decision. If we sincerely want peace in the region, and we do want that, it was an expression of that sincerity. If your presumption is that if we did not give those maps, there would be no captives, I do not think so. Ultimately, we had to hand over those maps. The international community urged us to take unilateral steps to increase trust, and we took that step as a humanitarian gesture, to demonstrate our sincerity in the peace efforts.”

For more details, watch the video.