Azerbaijan returns soldier to Armenia
Azerbaijan returned Armenia its soldier Andranik Grigoryan, born 1991, who crossed the contact line of the two countries’ troops on March 22, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Trend on November 18.
The soldier was handed over to Armenian side near the village of Bash Garvand in Azerbaijan’s Aghdam region.
The ICRC members regularly visited Grigoryan, evaluated the conditions he lived in, and helped him to keep in contact with his family members.
ICRC, as a neutral mediator and in line with its mandate, helped the process of returning Grigoryan to Armenia, after Azerbaijan decided to hand over the soldier.
Before the soldier was handed over, the ICRC members visited Grigoryan, who said he wanted to return to Armenia.
Last week, Azerbaijan has repatriated an Armenian citizen, who was detained on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops.
The State Committee on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People reported on November 12 that Lusine Qukasovna Abovyan,a 73-year-old Armenian civilian, a resident of Savarsharan village in Armenia’s Noyemberyan region, was repatriated in accordance with international humanitarian laws.
Abovyan violated the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border by trying to cross in the direction of the Gazakh region.
A precarious cease-fire between Azerbaijan and Armenia was reached after a lengthy war that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis and has been in place between the two South Caucasus countries since 1994. Since the hostilities, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless.
The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.
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