OSCE Minsk Group calls on Baku to hand all POWs over to Yerevan

On May 5, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs approved the extradition of three prisoners of war (POWs) to Armenia and called on Azerbaijan to complete the return of the Armenian soldiers captured in Nagorno-Karabakh to their homeland.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on May 4, POWs Robert Vardanyan, Samvel Shukhyan, and Seiran Tamrazyan were brought from Azerbaijan to Yerevan.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America welcomed the release of Robert Vardanyan, Samvel Shukhyan, and Seiran Tamrazyan. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group called on both parties to “fully and expeditiously” complete the exchange process for all “prisoners, detainees, and remains of the dead,” the OSCE website announces.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) received complaints about the violation of the rights of 228 captured residents of Armenia and 13 captured citizens of Azerbaijan.

The parties to the Karabakh conflict negotiated the return of all prisoners of war after the end of the autumn battles of 2020. Azerbaijan insists that it has fulfilled the agreement and that about 60 people not extradited to Armenia are not prisoners of war, but saboteurs captured after the end of the full-scale fighting.