Professional boxer, nine-time world champion Vic Darchinyan has addressed a letter to the world's top sportsmen, drawing their attention to the Armenian prisoners of war being held captive in Azerbaijan, four months after the end of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh

"I am asking all the athletes of the world to not be indifferent and join my call for making Azerbaijani government return the Armenian captives, who are being held like prisoners," Darchinyan said Thursday, March 11.

"The war is over. Thousands of people have died, thousands of families are grieving, but there are soldiers who have survived and can still return home. I’m asking you to speak up, so that our Armenian captives are no longer locked up in Azerbaijan.

Several dozen Armenian POWs have returned from Azerbaijan so far, although Armenian officials say many more people were being held in Baku. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claims, however, that persons being kept in Baku are not prisoners of war but “terrorists and saboteurs”. Human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan has said, meanwhile, that there is enough evidence proving the capture of said persons, which the Armenian side will submit to international agencies and courts.