YEREVAN, June 27. /TASS/. Armenia has no illusions regarding Azerbaijan’s position and actions on undermining the agreements, because this is being done to create preconditions for legitimacy of a war against it, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during an online press conference Monday.
"Azerbaijan rejects achieving agreements and accuses Armenia of it. We have no illusions as to why it is being done. In my opinion, this is being done to create preconditions for legitimacy of a war against Armenia. And further promotion of a peaceful agenda is becoming more important for us," Pashinyan said.
Azerbaijan admits that it is holding 38 Armenian prisoners of war and international organizations know about these people, Pashinyan said.
"Azerbaijan is seeking to politicize humanitarian issues in violation of the trilateral statement of November 9. Now, Baku admits that it is holding 38 prisoners, but we have another list, which is compiled under the following criteria: if we have data that this or that person is taken prisoner, we are taking measures to clarify their status. So far, we have no data that they are held in Azerbaijan," he told an online news conference.
Russia’s interests are taken into account as far as the issue of biolaboratories in Armenia is concerned and nothing is being done that might be a threat to Russia’s security, Pashinyan said.
"Biolaboratories are Armenia’s property. Russian specialists have visited them and found no grounds for concerns. As far as biolaboratories are concerned, Russia’s interests are taken into account and nothing is being done that can be a security threat to Russia," he said during an online news conference in reply to TASS’ question.
The Armenian prime minister noted that the world of science is open and scientists maintain contacts between themselves. In his words, it is not ruled out that Armenian scientists had contacts with Ukrainian colleagues or participated in joint projects with them.
Russia’s embassy in Armenia said earlier that there are "structures in Armenia that took part in bio projects in Ukraine." "In the context of the implementation of the memorandum on bio security, there are questions concerning coming reports about Armenia’s cooperation with the United States and its allies in the biological sphere, including between defense ministries," the embassy said.
Yerevan, however, denies involvement of US defense officials in the work of biolaboratories in Armenia. "All biolaboratories are working under the current laws and in the republic’s interests. They employ only Armenian nationals," the Armenian government said.