Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 5
Trend:
The body of Azerbaijani soldier Chingiz Gurbanov was returned from Armenia to Azerbaijan in a transfer facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Feb. 5, ICRC said in a message.
The handover took place on the road between the Armenian town of Ijevan and the Azerbaijani town of Gazakh at the international border.
Immediately after the incident on the international border on December 29, 2016, the ICRC offered its services in its role as neutral intermediary to facilitate the transfer of the soldier's body.
In April 2016, following an escalation in hostilities in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the ICRC assisted the sides in several operations to search for the bodies of those killed in action and retrieve them from the battlefield, along the Line of Contact. The ICRC also facilitated the handover of the bodies.
The ICRC has been carrying out humanitarian work in the region related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since 1992.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.