Initialing of peace deal with Armenia allows Azerbaijan to clear  itself of its crimes in issue of missing persons - Arman Tatoyan 

ArmInfo. The agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the establishment of peace and interstate relations initialed in Washington downplays the issue of missing persons and the rights of their families, allowing the Azerbaijani side to cleanse itself of its crimes.

This opinion was expressed by the former Ombudsman of Armenia, head  of the Tatoyan Foundation Arman Tatoyan in his telegram channel on  the occasion of the International Day of the Missing Persons. In  particular, according to him, this document devalues international  mechanisms, such as the UN, and the issue is taken out of the  framework of international control and transferred to the sphere of  bilateral relations. "Thus, another unacceptable provision in this  agreement stipulates that Armenia will abandon all types of  international demands on Azerbaijan," Tatoyan noted.

The former ombudsman also reported that yesterday, August 31, on the  International Day of the Disappeared, he discussed this important  issue, which has been causing mental suffering to so many families  and tension in Armenian society for 5 years, with Anna Melikyan, a  legal expert at the NGO "Protection of Rights Without Borders".

The exact number of Armenian prisoners of war and hostages held in  Azerbaijani prisons is still unknown.  According to the latest data  from the International Committee of the Red Cross, as of August 2024,  about 1,000 people are considered missing on the Armenian side, with  about 300 people considered as such after the latest escalation in  the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in the period from autumn 2020 to  autumn 2023. Moreover, all data was collected by the ICRC based on  appeals from the relatives of the missing persons themselves. The  ICRC also reported that among these 300 people, there are several  dozen appeals concerning cases where the family did not agree with  the DNA data provided by the state. Recall that on August 8, Armenian  Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev  signed a joint seven-point "Declaration of Peace" in Washington. It  provides for a joint appeal to the Organization for Security and  Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to terminate the OSCE Minsk process and  related structures, as well as the creation of a transport corridor  through Armenian territory that will connect Azerbaijan with its  Nakhchivan exclave, surrounded by Armenia, Turkey and Iran. The TRIPP  project (Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a 42-km  road in southern Armenia that will hand over control of the road to  the United States for 99 years), according to experts, is capable of  significantly changing the geopolitical situation in the South  Caucasus.