As a first step toward normalising relations, Azerbaijan and Armenia exchanged prisoners of war at their border following Azerbaijan’s significant victory in their long-running battle.
The state commission for prisoners of war in Azerbaijan released a statement on Wednesday stating, “Azerbaijan freed 32 Armenian military, and Armenia freed two Azerbaijani military.”
The removal of troops from Armenia and Azerbaijan’s shared border was reportedly under discussion, according to a report earlier on Wednesday by Russia’s TASS news agency, however no decision had been made as of yet.
“Thirty-one personnel from Armenia’s armed forces captured in 2020-2023 and one serviceman captured in Karabakh in September have crossed the Azerbaijani-Armenian border and are on Armenian territory,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook account.
Announcing the planned prisoner exchange last week, the two sides said they “reconfirm their intention to normalise relations and to reach a peace treaty on the basis of respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
In the joint statement, Baku and Yerevan pledged to seize “a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the region”.
The accord was welcomed by the EU, the US, and regional powers Turkey and Russia, which have been trying for decades to encourage the two countries to sign a peace treaty to resolve unresolved concerns such as boundary demarcation.
Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, split away from Baku in the early 1990s following a war. In a 2020 war, Azerbaijan reclaimed large swaths of territory in and around it.
