TODAY.AZ / Politics

Azerbaijan hands over Armenian citizen

12 November 2015 [18:29] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan has repatriated an Armenian citizen, who was detained last week on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops.

The State Committee on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People reported on November 12 that Lusine Qukasovna Abovyan,a 73-year-old Armenian civilian, a resident of Savarsharan village in Armenia’s Noyemberyan region, was repatriated in accordance with international humanitarian laws.

She was handed over under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Abovyan was returned to the Armenian side on the road between the Azerbaijani region of Gazakh and the Armenian town of Ijevan, on the international border.

Acting as a neutral intermediary and in accordance with its mandate, the ICRC facilitated this handover, together with Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities.

In a conversation with the ICRC representatives before the handover, Abovyan expressed her desire to return home. The ICRC representatives were also in contact with her family before the handover.

The commission also noted that shots were heard from nearby Armenian positions when Abovyan was being repatriated to the Armenian side.

Members of the commission`s working group asked the representatives of the ICRC to assure that the Armenian side provides security guarantees and stop the shooting, the commission said, adding that after these demands, Abovyan’s repatriation was completed.

Abovyan violated the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border by trying to cross in the direction of the Gazakh region.

A precarious cease-fire between Azerbaijan and Armenia was reached after a lengthy war that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis and has been in place between the two South Caucasus countries since 1994. Since the hostilities, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/145128.html

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