STEPANAKERT—Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Armed Forces Thursday exchanged prisoners with Azerbaijan’s military Thursday in an effort arranged and monitored by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The exchange, which took place in Aghdam, was part of an agreement reached between President Sarkisian and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev last October. Per the agreement, bodies of civilians or military personnel killed in the zone, as well as all captives must be returned to the respective sides.
Officials in Stepanakert said Artur Badalian, a civilian resident of a village in northeastern Armenia, was swapped for Anvar Hajiev, an Azerbaijani army officer who was taken prisoner by Karabakh forces last year, reported RFE/RL.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Defense Ministry said that an Azeri soldier held captive in Armenia did not want to be repatriated.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Davit Karapetyan said that Roman Huseynov does not want to return to Azerbaijan and has expressed interest in staying in Armenia.
Karapetyan said that if Huseynov wanted to return to Azerbaijan, Armenia would immediately repatriate him.
At least it’s a step in the right direction!
And the azeris kill one Armenian on ceasefire line at the same moment.
And at the same moment OSCE leadership calls for Armenians to display goodwill by removing snipers from ceasefire line without requiring same from Azeris!
Well, they are requiring BOTH parties to remove snipers from the line of contact. Unfortunately though, as we have learned, it is one thing to get the Azeris to promise something and another to actually do it.