Baku: Armenia and Azerbaijan exchange prisoners of war

The neighbors are embroiled in a protracted conflict over Karabakh, which Azerbaijan recaptured in September after a lightning offensive against separatist Armenian forces that had controlled the enclave for three decades.

Since then, talks to normalize relations, brokered separately by the European Union, the United States and Russia, have stalled, although both sides said a peace deal could be signed by the end of this year.

“Azerbaijan released 32 Armenian soldiers, [o] Armenia has released two Azerbaijani servicemen,” Azerbaijan’s State Commission for Prisoners of War Affairs said in a statement.

It added that the exchange took place in the Kazakh sector of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border.

“The Armenian soldiers were handed over to Armenia after the International Committee of the Red Cross checked their health and gave a positive conclusion,” the statement said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikolas Pashinyan published a list of 32 freed Armenian soldiers on his Facebook page.

It comes after Baku and Yerevan issued a joint statement last week pledging to seize a “historic opportunity to achieve long-awaited peace in the region” and announcing a prisoner-of-war swap.

The statement was hailed as a breakthrough by the EU, the US, as well as Turkey and Russia.

In November, Yerevan said Baku was holding a total of 55 Armenian prisoners of war.

The figure included six civilians, 41 military personnel and eight separatist leaders arrested following the Baku military operation in September.