Karabakh Official Fired After Criticizing Armenian Authorities

The roundtable discussion was organized by independent lawmakers who left Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s My Step bloc following the Armenian side’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November. One of them, Taguhi Tovmasyan, said Avagyan’s comments on the authorities’ handling of the prisoner issue are a cause for concern.

“We must also hear from other officials who are supposed to deal with the prisoners’ return,” Tovmasyan told reporters.

The Armenian government caused controversy after some of its senior representatives said late on April 9 that a new group of Armenian captives is about to be set free and repatriated. However, none of them was on board a Russian plane that arrived from Baku to Yerevan that night.

Andranik Kocharyan, a senior pro-government lawmaker, accused Baku of not honoring an agreement which he said was reached as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest conversations with Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders. He claimed that Lieutenant-General Rustam Muradov, the commander of Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in Karabakh, travelled to Baku to “escort the prisoners back to Armenia.”

Muradov categorically denied that, however, saying that officials in Yerevan are “misleading the population.”

Armenian opposition leaders accused Pashinyan’s government of botching the prisoner release in a failed attempt to score political points.