Armenia agrees to hand military prisoners to Azerbaijan

The Armenian Defense Ministry is ready to hand Azerbaijani military prisoners to Baku, according to an agreement reached between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan with the mediation of Russia, RIA Novosti cites the ministry as saying.

The Armenian Defense Ministry informed the International Red Cross Committee about the initiative.
Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian Presidents Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev and Dmitry Medvedev held talks in Sochi on March 5 and passed a joint declaration on Nagorno-Karabakh. The document emphasises peaceful means of resolving the conflict and monitoring to avoid incidents on the contact line, under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group and with the assistance of the special representative of the OSCE chair.

The previous trilateral meeting of the presidents was held in Astrakhan on October 27, 2010. The presidents agreed to exchange military prisoners in the shortest possible terms.

The Armenian Defense Ministry handed the last military prisoner to Azerbaijan on November 4, 2010. The prisoner was caught for illegal border crossing. His name was not announced, according to the deal.