The United States, the European Union and Russia have praised Armenia and Azerbaijan for agreeing to swap prisoners held by them and to take other confidence-building measures.
Under the agreement announced late on Thursday, Azerbaijan will free 32 Armenian prisoners of war in exchange for Armenia’s release of two Azerbaijani soldiers and support for Baku’s bid to host the COP29 climate summit next year.
“This commitment represents an important confidence building measure as the sides work to finalize a peace agreement and normalize relations,” Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said shortly after the announcement.
EU Council President Charles Michel was also quick to welcome the deal, calling it a “major breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.”
“I now encourage the leaders to finalize the Armenia-Azerbaijani peace deal [as soon as possible,] tweeted Michel.
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its “satisfaction” with the prisoner exchange the following morning.
“This contributes to mutual strengthening of trust and opens up new opportunities for furthering the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization process in line with the comprehensive trilateral agreements reached by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020-2022,” said Maria Zakharova, the ministry spokeswoman.
Zakharova specifically hailed Yerevan’s stated support for the holding of the COP29 in Baku. She said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special climate envoy has “held contacts with Baku and Yerevan aimed at reaching a common understanding” on the UN climate summit.
The chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations, Sargis Khandanian, stressed, meanwhile, the deal is the result of direct negotiations held by Baku and Yerevan. He gave no details of those talks.
Khandanian also said the release of the prisoners is “a matter of hours or days.” The Azerbaijani government publicized overnight the list of the 32 captives that will be repatriated by it. Most of them were taken prisoner in Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2022 just weeks after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
According to Yerevan-based human rights groups, Baku held at least 55 Armenian captives as of Thursday. They included 41 POWs, six civilians and eight current and former leaders of Karabakh arrested following Azerbaijan’s September military offensive in Karabakh. The Karabakh leaders are not covered by the latest deal.
Source: Azatutyun.am
