Details added (the first version was posted at 15:06 )
Azerbaijan, Baku, March 17 / Trend K.Zarbaliyeva /
Azerbaijan has transferred Armenian citizen Arthur Badalian to Armenia at 2 pm in the Agdam region on Thursday. In turn, soldier Anar Hajiyev was transferred to the Azerbaijani side.
The Armenian armed forces captured Azerbaijani army sergeant Roman Huseinov
on Aug. 27, 2010 and junior sergeant Anar Hajiyev -May 10, 2009.
Previously, Azerbaijan transferred three Armenian soldiers to the third party at their request.
"We are very pleased that Armenia and Azerbaijan have followed through on their commitment to exchange persons detained in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as declared by the presidents of the two countries in Astrakhan in October 2010 and confirmed in Sochi in March 2011," head of the ICRC delegation in Yerevan Lorenzo Caraffi said, the ICRC told Trend.
"Acting as a neutral intermediary and in accordance with our mandate, we facilitated the handover operation at the request of both the Armenian and the Azerbaijani authorities. Before the operation took place, the ICRC made sure that the persons concerned were returning of their own free will," he added.
ICRC delegates had visited these persons on several occasions prior to the operation in order to assess their treatment and conditions of detention.
I'm very happy to be back with my family and looking forward to seeing my son who has grown a lot since I saw him last time", said one of them during the last meeting with ICRC representatives before the handover operation.
The ICRC had also enabled the exchange of family news between them and their relatives throughout their detention.
Working under the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC has been operating in the region since 1992 in connection with the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.
The State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People reported that the process of exchange proceeded without incidents.
Previously, Azerbaijan transferred three Armenian soldiers to the third party upon their request.
At present, three Armenian soldiers and five civilians (family members) are in Azerbaijan.
Astrakhan hosted a trilateral meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and Russia Dmitry Medvedev on Oct. 27. The parties signed a declaration envisaging the return of POWs.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.