06:50, 5 May 2021

Azerbaijan hands three POWs over to Armenia

On May 4, three Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) kept by Azerbaijan were taken by plane from Baku to Yerevan and sent to the hospital for examination.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 29, the European Union (EU) called on Azerbaijan to provide the information about Armenian POWs that had been requested by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and to speed up their return to their homeland.

The Azerbaijani authorities refuse treating the citizens of Armenia detained after signing the armistice as POWs. According to Baku, there are 62 or 63 such persons kept in Azerbaijan. Armenia, in its turn, claims that about 200 POWs are kept in Azerbaijan.

According to Nazeli Bagdasaryan, an MP from the ruling "My Step" faction in the Armenian Parliament, one of the three returnees is a native of the Shirak Region of Armenia, where protests were held in April demanding the return of POWs. Many of the reservists, whose group was captured in Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2020, had lived in the Shirak Region.

The three military servicemen were released as a "goodwill gesture", the "Caliber.Az" has noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 4, 2021 at 09:21 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Armine Martirosyan

Source: CK correspondent