ICRC negotiates with Azerbaijan and Armenia to exchange war prisoners

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is negotiating a prisoner of war exchange with Azerbaijan and Armenia, ICRC Baku Office spokesman Ilaha Huseynova told Trend.

Armenia has appealed to the ICRC Yerevan Office and expressed its readiness to transfer Azerbaijani prisoners of war. Talks are ongoing between the ICRC offices, she said.

According to the agreement between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, concluded under the mediation of the president of Russia in Sochi, the head of the ICRC Yerevan Office on Monday, was informed about the readiness of the Armenian side to transfer Azerbaijani prisoners of war staying on the Armenian side, News.am reported with reference to the press service for the Armenian Defense Ministry.

After the talks on March 5 the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia made a joint statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. The document said that the leaders discussed the issues of practical implementation of the tripartite statement adopted by them during the last meeting in Astrakhan on October 27, 2010. In particular, the Presidents agreed to complete exchanging of prisoners of war as soon as possible.

The document stresses the desire to resolve all disputed issues by peaceful means and to investigate possible incidents along the ceasefire line, with the participation of the parties under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen with the assistance of the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman.


/Trend/