Azernews.Az

BAKU – Armenia has handed over an Azerbaijani civilian to Baku and received the body of an Armenian intelligence officer, in the first swap under a Russian-brokered deal aimed at easing tensions.

Thursday's swap took place under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Azerbaijani State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons said in a statement.

The handover took place on the road between the Azerbaijani town of Gazakh and the Armenian town of Ijevan.

The repatriated Azerbaijani citizen is Eldar Taghiyev, a 47-year-old resident of the western Tovuz district, who was captured by the Armenian troops in late December 2009 after being subjected to shooting near the contact line of the two countries’ troops.

The repatriated Armenian citizen, Manvel Saribekyan, is a saboteur who was seized in Azerbaijan near the north-western part of the frontline on September 11 in an attempt by an intelligence group to cross the border. Saribekyan hanged himself after tying his shirt and a bed-sheet in his prison cell on October 5.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict over Nagorno Karabakh for two decades. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory has been under Armenian occupation since the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. The OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France, is brokering peace talks.

The agreement to swap prisoners of war and the dead bodies of soldiers was signed by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in conclusion of their talks in Russia last Wednesday.

"We welcome the declaration adopted at the latest round of talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Astrakhan in October 2010, which mentions an exchange of prisoners of war and human remains, and the assistance the ICRC could provide in this regard," said the ICRC's head of operations for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Pascale Meige Wagner.

Last April, the ICRC repatriated an Azerbaijani soldier and the remains of two Azerbaijani citizens. The organization is currently involved in discussions on repatriating other internees and human remains in both directions, including the remains of two Azerbaijani soldiers recently killed in the area along the line of contact.

Armenia still holds two Azerbaijani servicemen. Baku also demands that Yerevan hand over two soldiers’ dead bodies.

Six Armenian servicemen and a family of five people are held in Azerbaijan.

At least 21 soldiers on both sides have been reported killed in clashes along a cease-fire line this year, including 11 killed in the last two months.

The ICRC has been operating in Azerbaijan and Armenia since 1992, in connection with the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.