#wakeup
😈💩👎
Ruptly
Protesters took to the streets of Yerevan on Saturday to demand their government act decisively on returning prisoners of war captured during the conflict with Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. Demonstrators also expressed concerns about the bodies of Armenian soldiers which have not been returned to their relatives. "The thing is, we have lots of prisoners of war, that are currently held in Azerbaijan. Videos of these soldiers, these proud Armenian soldiers who have been fighting for their motherland keep popping up and we see them being humiliated, being tortured, and we see that there is zero dignity from the Azerbaijani army, they are behaving in the most disrespectful way to our soldiers," said Narek Margaryan, a comedian and protester. After six weeks of hostilities, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russian-brokered deal to end the fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region on November 9. Though the joint statement does state the need to return bodies and prisoners of war to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, it contains no deadline for the process. *SOUNDBITES* SOT, Narek Margaryan, comedian and protester: "This is probably the single most important issue today in Armenia. The thing is, we have lots of prisoners of war, that are currently held in Azerbaijan. Videos of these soldiers, these proud Armenian soldiers who have been fighting for their motherland keep popping up and we see them being humiliated, being tortured, and we see that there is zero dignity from the Azerbaijani army. They are behaving in the most disrespectful way to our soldiers. And every day, every minute, every second that our soldiers are held in captivity there, is one that is too late. We should have acted a long before. Now the agreement that our government, our Prime Minister assigned does not specify any specific days on when the prisoners of wars should be returned to us. And that is a great unfortune, and, although, people are saying things are being done, well, they are being done very very slowly". SOT, Hrant Tokhatyan, actor (Russian): "I would lovet my government, my state to take care of this issue and we would help them. And today, as the things are not done today, we came here to manage it ourselves. We have to deal with it because even one second costs lives. Today I address everyone - we have to make over voices heard, write e-mails, letters, call all embassies in all states, all those institutions responsible for human rights and we have to make Azerbaijan return the bodies of the deceased, prisoners of war and save those soldiers, who are still on the enemy’s territory."
