Baku hands over to Yerevan Armenians crossing into Azerbaijan
By Ayya Lmahamad
Baku has handed over back to Yerevan two Armenians who earlier crossed into the Azerbaijani territory, Trend has reported, quoting Azerbaijan's State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.
"Two Armenians aged 20-21 were handed over to Armenia on September 20," the commission said.
It was noted that they were transferred to Armenia through the mediation of Russian peacekeepers, who have been temporarily stationed on Azerbaijani territories under the trilateral ceasefire deal signed in 2020.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10, 2020, brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.
The peace agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions and withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historic Shusha city.
Earlier, Azerbaijan handed over more than 70 prisoners of war to Armenia. It should be noted that Armenia has failed to provide any information about more than 4,000 Azerbaijani citizens who went missing during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s. At the same time, Armenia does not provide information about the Azerbaijani citizens who were in captivity during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war.
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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad
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