On Monday, November 14, Armenia and Azerbaijan have begun their exchange of hostages, a move stipulated in the peace deal between the two ex-Soviet nations that ended recent fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, as was stated by the Azerbaijani State Commission on Prisoners, Missing Persons and Hostages on the official website.
According to the agency, an all-for-all exchange of prisoners and hostages have been agreed with Armenia, and a plane with some of the captives landed in Azerbaijan on Monday afternoon. It was announced, that even Shahbaz Guliev and Dilgam Akserov returned to Azerbaijan. Since July 2014, they were considered hostages in Armenia. The exchange was facilitated by Russian peacekeepers that have been deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh under the peace deal.
"As a result of negotiations with international organizations and the Russian peacekeeping command, an agreement was reached with the Armenian side on the exchange of prisoners and hostages is “all for all” format, and this process began on December 14," as was stated the Azerbaijani State Commission on Prisoners, Missing Persons and Hostages.
The Azerbaijani side assures that all data on Armenian prisoners were regularly provided to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all Armenian captives whose captivity has been confirmed by Azerbaijan and the Red Cross are being returned. Some prisoners were even released unilaterally by the Azerbaijani side.
Armenia has not officially confirmed a prisoner exchange yet.
Reminding, that on December 11 in the Nagorno-Karabakh region another armed attack attempt was recorded. According to Azerbaijani media, as a result of the Armenian armed provocation in Hadrut, one Azerbaijani soldier was injured. On the contrary, Armenian side claims that Azerbaijan attempted to attack one of the battle posts in the southern direction. As a result of the firefight, three Armenian servicemen were wounded.