News - Armenia legislature speaker: Captives’ issue not included in peace treaty with Azerbaijan

The negotiations and conversations in connection with captives exist in all formats, in all possible places. Alen Simonyan, speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, stated this while speaking with reporters in the NA Monday. "That matter is included in the [trilateral] statement of November 9, [2020] where Russia and Azerbaijan are obligated to organize the return of other persons and captives, which Russia and Azerbaijan are not doing at this phase. Does this mean that Russia and Azerbaijan have withdrawn their signature from the treaty of November 9 or not?" said Simonyan. And asked whether it is possible to consider Armenia's participation in the COP29 UN Climate Change Conference in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku in November as a precondition, Simonyan responded: "First of all, let's specify one thing: Azerbaijan is not the party inviting COP29, it is a UN event, the UN is inviting because it is within that framework. Secondly, we need to understand whether our [i.e. Armenia’s] participation is appropriate, and whether it will happen in the case of a possible signing of the peace treaty [with Azerbaijan], or the return of the captives. It would be nice to have everything together in logic."