As reported by the oppositional but informed Armenian newspaper "Hraparak", about 160 soldiers of the Armenian Armed Forces are on the territory of Iran. Of course, we are not talking about the military invasion of the Armenian army battered during the Karabakh war into the territory of a strong regional power. A group of Armenian servicemen who fled from the advancing Azerbaijani army during last year's 44-day war in Karabakh is still in Iran.
"It is not known in what status Iran keeps them at home," the Armenian newspaper writes. It is noted that the issue of the Armenian soldiers who took refuge in Iran was discussed during the recent visit of a delegation of high-ranking military personnel of the Islamic Republic to Armenia. Gevorg Altunyan, the head of the information and public relations department of the Armenian Defense Ministry, gave the following answer to "Hraparak's" inquiry: "The Defense Ministry does not comment on this topic."
It should be reminded that the first reports on the visit of high-ranking Iranian military personnel to Armenia were spread a couple of days ago in the Armenian telegram channels. According to those publications, "the representatives of the Iranian delegation promised the Armenian authorities military assistance, in particular, they offered to bring equipment and Iranian troops to Zangezur for temporary placement along the entire border in order to prevent the penetration of Azerbaijani saboteurs, including terrorists, into Armenia." However, the Armenian authorities allegedly refused the help of the Iranian side.
As a result of the Second Karabakh War, Iranian-Azerbaijani relations are going through a difficult period of transformation and reassessment of mutual interests. Today's "leak" of information about 160 Armenian soldiers in Iran could have occurred at the initiative of the Iranian side, which wants to send a signal to Baku that the visit of its military delegation to Yerevan is not a manifestation of hostility towards Azerbaijan, but is connected with other issues, for example, Armenian deserters.
At the same time, the inability of the Armenian Defense Ministry not only to refute, but even to comment on the information about 160 servicemen who fled to Iran, indirectly testifies to its reliability. Moreover, the situation fits into the general context of the difficult realities of the Armenian army following the defeat in the war: on May 17, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian pardoned more than 5,000 wanted deserters, as well as 124 convicts. It is not known whether 160 "Armenian migrants" in Iran are included in these lists. However, until Armenia deals with the lists of thousands of its own deserters and determines who, where and when fled, it will be difficult for it to conduct a substantive dialogue with Azerbaijan about prisoners of war and missing persons.
It should be reminded that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated in plain text that Yerevan was unable to provide clear lists of its missing soldiers. In a situation of departmental chaos and paralysis of state structures, the Armenian side prefers to "write off" some of those whom it cannot find as "prisoners of war held by Azerbaijan". The position is convenient - it is both a tool for informational pressure on Azerbaijan, and a way of bureaucratic utilization of all those who cannot be found by the Armenian state bodies by transferring responsibility. In Baku, in turn, they only shrug their shoulders to such claims of the Armenian side: "Deal with your deserters yourself - we have nothing to do with it."
