Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan has sent a video of a discussion between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan about the Armenian prisoners of war to the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

According to a video posted online, Emine Erdogan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife, has advised Aliyev to obtain the maps of minefields in Nagorno-Karabakh in exchange for the release of Armenian PoWs. She made the remarks when the two Presidents and their wives were on their way to Karabakh.

Aliyev is filmed telling the group that obtaining all the maps of minefields would give them a big advantage, because otherwise demining all the territories would take a lot of time. Erdogan's wife then chimes in to make sure there are still Armenian captives in Azerbaijan, to which Aliyev replies: "Yes, yes, there are many of them." She then urges him to return the captives step by step.

According to Tatoyan, the interaction is irrefutable evidence that the Azerbaijani authorities:

1) illegally keep Armenian captives as hostages for using them in political bargaining;

2) commit human trafficking, which criminally punishable;

3) continuously mislead the international community claiming that the captives are terrorists or saboteurs;

4) organize false criminal proceedings against captives.