Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged prisoners captured during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which they fought with each other for 44 days. Azerbaijan handed over 44 Armenians while receiving back 12 Azeri POWs and nationals held captive by Armenians. Among them were Dilqam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, two Azeri nationals arrested and sentenced by the Nagorno-Karabakh separatist authorities on charges of murder and espionage in 2014. However, they claimed they were just visiting the Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan, which was then held under Armenian occupation, and they are originally from there.

The prisoner exchange took place under the mediation and facilitation of the Russian Peacekeepers Command. Rustam Muradov, a Russian general and commander of the peacekeeping forces, participated in the transportation of Azeri and Armenian prisoners. The swap was implemented according to the ‘all for all’ principle.

In a separate development, Azerbaijan has arrested four of its military personnel on charges of war crimes. They are accused of the destruction of Armenian tombstones and mutilation of the corpses of enemy soldiers. Azerbaijan’s General Prosecutor’s Office had earlier launched a probe to investigate social media images and videos alleging mistreatment of captured Armenian fighters.

The Armenian side has not reported if it is investigating war crimes committed by its military, evidence of which was also posted on social media accounts.

Hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh ended with a ceasefire declaration signed by them on November 10, with Russian mediation. Armenia agreed to hand back the territories it held to Azerbaijan. However, disputes over defining a contact line and establishing military positions recently led to a ceasefire violation, with at least four Azeri troops killed and several Armenians wounded.