Azerbaijan, Armenia Exchange Detainees in Confidence-Building Measure

Azerbaijan and Armenia exchanged detainees on Wednesday to fulfil a mutual agreement announced last week.

A total of 34 servicemen from both sides were released, according to the State Commission of Azerbaijan on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.

The Azerbaijani side handed over 32 military servicemen to Armenia on the interstate border in the western Gazakh region. Armenia reciprocated by releasing 2 Azerbaijani captives – Huseyn Akhundov and Agshin Babirov.

The release of the Armenian military servicemen took place following relevant healthcare checks and confirmation of satisfactory conditions by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff. The Health Ministry of Armenia reaffirmed the results of the ICRC examinations.

Baku and Yerevan agreed on the swap of detainees on December 7 in a joint statement on mutual confidence-building measures. The two countries' authorities declared it as a “goodwill gesture” that could help facilitate the signing of a peace treaty.

The US authorities welcomed the return of the Armenian and Azerbaijani detainees and the mutual intentions of the two countries to discuss additional confidence-building measures.

“We will continue to work with Armenia and Azerbaijan to move the process forward. We continue to believe that peace is possible if both parties are willing to pursue it,” the US Department of State Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

Azerbaijani conscripts Akhundov and Babirov lost their way during routine duties in limited visibility conditions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in the latter’s Nakhchivan region in April of this year. After unwittingly crossing into the territory of Armenia they were captured by the Armenian forces.

Armenian authorities launched criminal cases against the Azerbaijani captives accusing them of a pre-planned infiltration attempt. In mock trials, Akhundov and Babirov have been sentenced to 20 years and 11.5 years of prison, respectively. Akhundov’s term of imprisonment was later changed to a life sentence.

The Armenian military servicemen released by Azerbaijan on Wednesday were the members of the Armed Forces of Armenia who infiltrated into the territory of Azerbaijan shortly after the 2020 war. They were detained in their combat positions in the Khojavand district, Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, in December three years ago.

On December 13, 2020, the State Security Service of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan announced an anti-terror operation against the Armenian armed groups who refused to leave the territories of Azerbaijan and committed deadly violations of the tripartite statement signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia. The Armenian armed groups illegally remained in the forest area in the north-western part of Hadrut settlement of Azerbaijan’s Khojavend district following the tripartite statement's entering into force on November 10, 2020.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had been in an armed conflict for nearly 30 years over the Karabakh (Garabagh) region, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

Armenia launched full-blown military aggression against Azerbaijan following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991. The bloody war lasted until a ceasefire in 1994 and saw Armenia occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, and one million were expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Armenia.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict took a violent turn after Armenia’s forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the counter-attack operations that lasted 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated about 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from nearly 30 years of illegal Armenian occupation. The war ended in a tripartite statement signed on November 10, 2020, by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. Under the statement, Armenia also returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched local anti-terrorist measures to neutralize illegal Armenian armed formations and their military infrastructure deployed in certain parts of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region temporarily monitored by the Russian peacekeeping contingent after the 2020 war. Following 23 hours of intense operations, Azerbaijani forces disabled artillery, military infrastructure, and strongholds of Armenian armed formations. Over 90 strategic positions were brought under control, with no harm to civilians or infrastructure. The illegal Armenian separatist regime, seeking Russian mediation, agreed to cease activities on September 20 and self-dissolved on September 28. President Aliyev hoisted the state flag of Azerbaijan in Khankendi, the Karabakh region on October 15 announcing the restoration of sovereignty across the entire internationally recognized landmass of Azerbaijan.