Azatutyun.am. Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged over three dozen prisoners on Wednesday one week after reaching an agreement to that effect welcomed by the international community.
In line with that agreement, Azerbaijan freed 32 Armenian soldiers and civilians in exchange for Armenia’s release of two Azerbaijani servicemen. The swap took place at the border between the two countries.
As part of the deal, Yerevan also dropped its objections to Baku’s bid to host the COP29 climate summit next year. The United Nations officially announced Azerbaijan as the summit host on Monday.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian posted the list of the freed Armenians on his Facebook page. He said that they will undergo medical examinations before reuniting with their families.
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Most of them were taken prisoner in Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2020 just weeks after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the last Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Also repatriated was Gagik Voskanian, an Armenian army reservist who was mobilized a few weeks before straying into Azerbaijani territory in August this year in unclear circumstances. An Azerbaijani court convicted Voskanian of “terrorism” just hours before the announcement of the prisoner swap.
“Up until the last minute we were not sure [about Voskanian’s release] because we feared that the Azerbaijanis could do something at the last minute,” his mother, Ashkhen Avetisian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “So it really was a surprise, a big surprise.”
According to Yerevan-based human rights activists, 23 Armenians remain in Azerbaijani captivity after the latest swap. They include eight current and former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh arrested following Azerbaijan’s September military offensive in the region.
The Azerbaijani soldiers set free by Yerevan were detained in April after crossing into Armenia’s Syunik province from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. One of them, Huseyn Akhundov, was charged with murdering a Syunik resident the day before his detention. Armenia’s Court of Appeals sentenced him to life imprisonment last week.
The 56-year-old murder victim, Hayrapet Meliksetian worked as a security guard at a waste disposal facility of Armenia’s largest mining company. Meliksetian ‘s daughter has reportedly condemned Pashinian for agreeing to Akhundov’s release.
The United States, the European Union and Russia were quick to welcome the Armenian-Azerbaijani deal on the prisoner swap. EU Council President Charles Michel called it a “major breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.”