Human rights activist: The Armenian government confirms that it has approached third countries regarding visits to Armenian prisoners of war, but denies receiving their consent.

ArmInfo. The Republic of Armenia confirms that it has approached third countries with a request to organize a consular visit to Armenian prisoners of war, but denies that these countries have given their consent. Siranush Sahakyan, a lawyer representing Armenian prisoners of war at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), announced this at a press conference in Yerevan on October 16.

She noted that there are contradictions on this issue. "For example, we are aware of an official response from Switzerland," Sahakyan noted, without revealing the content of the response.

The human rights activist also recalled that Armenian prisoners of war are deprived of the opportunity to receive and send letters, despite the fact that the right to correspondence is one of the guarantees that must be ensured for individuals held in closed institutions. In this regard, the lawyer recalled the initiative of Veronika Zonabend, the wife of former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, who collected letters for prisoners and appealed to the Armenian government to facilitate their transfer. However, according to Sahakyan, this issue also faced a contradictory situation. "In particular, government representatives stated that letters could be sent to Azerbaijan through HayPost. I would like to point out that we have already made similar attempts, and we have evidence that HayPost refuses to send any letters related to communication from Armenia to Azerbaijan," Sahakyan noted.

It should be noted that Veronika Zonabend also appealed to Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the Azerbaijani Ombudsman and the Armenian Prime Minister, asking for assistance in organizing a women's humanitarian mission to visit Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijani prisons. On September 4, Siranush Sahakyan reported that the Republic of Armenia had still not provided a clear position on whether Ruben Vardanyan's wife's initiative could receive state support. Having received no response, on September 8, Zonabend called on Armenian Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan to take her with him to Baku if such a visit was planned.

Commenting on this issue on October 15, the Armenian Prime Minister expressed outrage that letters addressed to Armenian prisoners had been handed over to the government. He suggested sending them by mail, considering the transfer of letters to the executive body a "provocation." It is noteworthy that Haypost and other delivery systems have stated that they are unable to deliver correspondence from Armenia to Azerbaijan.