Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan is convinced Armenia will achieve results in repatriating prisoners of war from Azerbaijan, the Armenian Service of RFE/RL reports.

"The Russian Federation definitely shares the approach that all the prisoners of war and detained persons must return," Avinyan said Friday, March 26.

"And I am definitely convinced that we will achieve results. I also want to emphasize that international pressure on Azerbaijan in this regard is growing and will continue to grow,” Avinian said.

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”. Officials and human rights advocates from the Armenian side, however, maintain Azerbaijan is still holding hundreds of people hostage, pledging to submit evidence proving the capture of said persons to international agencies and courts.