Washington remains “deeply” engaged on return of Armenians from Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Vedant Patel has commented on the continued detention of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan, maintaining that the Department of State continues to be “deeply” engaged on the matter.

Armenian POWs have been in incarcerated in Azerbaijan for four years by now, and there are Armenian local politicians from Nagorno-Karabakh again in the prisons of Azerbaijan for nearly one year after Azerbaijan launched another unprovoked attack in the fall 2023.

Patel was asked whether the Department follows the situation and whether Patel himself had any comments on the matter. “So on the context of the broader situation in the South Caucasus, this is something that the Secretary and the department continue to be deeply engaged on,” Patel told a briefing on Thursday, August 1.

“I don’t have any updates for you as it relates to that process. And look, when it comes to detainees, we have been clear and consistent that any country needs to treat all detainees humanely, with dignity, and in accordance with international law, and needs to respect detainees’ human rights, and that continues to be true in this case as well.”