Wounded Armenian POWs urged to return to army
By Vafa Ismayilova
Three of the 44 POWs whom Azerbaijan returned to Armenia in December 2020 were sent back to the army, the Armenian media have reported.
At the time of the outbreak of hostilities in Karabakh in autumn 2020, one of the POWs - Saro Markosyan,18, served three months. During the war, he received shrapnel and 3 gunshot wounds in the leg and waist.
The official agencies he had turned to told him that he would "do nothing for the rest of his service". Narek Nersisyan, 19, who had served a month and a half before the war, was taken prisoner in Azerbaijan's Sugovushan settlement along with seven other soldiers.
After returning to Yerevan, the servicemen were first taken to a military hospital, where they were informed that they had no health problems. A psychologist also worked with them, and then they were sent to the service again.
The shrapnel from Saro's leg has not yet been removed, as the operation may entail undesirable consequences. According to Narek, psychologically he is not yet ready for service.
Narek left the military unit and went to the Defence Ministry, but he was unable to meet anyone. On the same day, the military police came for him and returned him to the military unit. At the moment it is not known whether Narek and Saro will be transferred to their permanent place of deployment or to another place, the Armenian media said.
Under the Armenian law, the fact of being taken prisoner is not considered a basis for discharge, said the chairman of the Peace Dialogue NGO, Edgar Khachatryan.
"The problem is that this law has not been modernized, martial law and the current situation have not been taken into account. Secondly, at the moment the authorities are not taking any action to resolve such issues. Only one government decision is needed so that legislative reforms do not have to go a long way, " the human rights activist said.
Rights activist Armine Sadikyan prioritizes the psychological state of a soldier who has returned from captivity.
“No matter how many people say that he is physically healthy and that there are no injuries or injuries, it is necessary to carry out long-term work with these people for their reintegration into society, especially for their return to the armed forces. I do not think that we are in such an extreme state that he is indispensable in the service. The state is obliged to fully engage in psychological recovery," she said.
Of the 44 prisoners who returned in December, only nine were conscripts: six of them were demobilized for health reasons, and Saro, Narek and another soldier were sent back to the military service.
Under the Karabakh peace deal signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders in November 2020, Azerbaijan handed over more than 70 prisoners of war to Armenia, and Armenia returned 14 prisoners of war. The peace deal also stipulates the exchange of bodies of soldiers following the 44-day war.
The first exchange took place on December 14 based on the "all for all" principle to mutually return prisoners of war and hostages agreed with Armenia as a result of negotiations with the participation of international organizations and Russian peacekeeping forces.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10 brought an end to 44 days of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.
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