Media: Armenian government circles raised fuss about return of ‘prisoners of war’

Armenia continues to feed its people with false promises that don’t reflect realities in the post-conflict period.

Another wave of protests in Armenia flared up after the plane that landed April 8 evening at Yerevan’s Erebuni Airport, which, according to preliminary reports, was supposed to deliver a group of Armenian prisoners of war, turned out to be empty.

According to the Armenian media, only the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh, Rustam Muradov, was on board. Numerous relatives of the soldiers gathered at the airport, who, upon learning about the empty plane, announced that they would join the protest rally outside the Defense Ministry building and organize a rally at the government building.

The chronology of events is quite interesting: at first, Nikol Pashinyan’s spokesperson Mane Gevorkian stated that a group of Armenian “prisoners of war” was returning from Baku to Yerevan by plane, but then the office of Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan made a statement that their return was postponed. This caused a fuss among internet users in Armenia, where many began to accuse Pashinyan and his supporters, who, in a fit of ‘fake’ joy, began to actively disseminate this information on social networks.

For example, AntiFake.am found out that the hype about the return of prisoners was raised by the government circles.

“The news quickly spread through the Pashinyan family to armtimes.com, freenews.am, linked to Alen Simonyan, araratnews.am, the pro-government 1in.am, which belongs to pro-national ‘independent’ MP Arman Babajanyan, funded by foreign money from the Soros Foundation. It is already obvious that before the elections Pashinyan made a cheap PR attempt at the expense of the Armenian captives, which failed shamefully,” the source said.

Well-known Armenian telegram channels comment on this event with misunderstanding and bewilderment, most likely their expectations did not match the realities. Telegram channel ‘Bagramyan 26’ comments on this situation: “The Russian general arrived in Yerevan without Armenian prisoners of war... Just the plane, him and the pilots." Another Armenian telegram channel writes: "A strange man came out and started shouting that no prisoners had been brought and that the plane was empty... Honestly, I don’t understand what is happening. Nikol’s press secretary has recently said that the return of prisoners of war is planned today."

On April 8, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stated that the issue of transferring prisoners of war has been resolved and closed, and in accordance with its commitments, Azerbaijan transferred all prisoners of war to Armenia.

He explained that in order for the military to be considered prisoners of war, they must be detained during military operations. Those who were detained later as a result of the anti-terrorist operation can be called terrorists, but not prisoners of war, Bayramov said. After such statements, Armenia is still trying to give false hopes to its citizens, which leads to an increase in protest rallies in Yerevan, he added.