Azerbaijan today returned 15 Armenians to Yerevan in exchange of maps of 97,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in Aghdam region, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry reported on June 12.
The agreement on the exchanged was reached on June 12, the ministry said, adding that the 15 Armenians were returned on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border with the participation of the Georgian representatives.
Obtaining mine maps will save the lives and health of tens of thousands of Azerbaijani citizens, including demining workers, and accelerate the reconstruction projects in Agdam and the return of IDPs to the region, the ministry said.
It also thanked the Georgian government for mediating the exchange as well as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker, President of the European Council Charles Michel and the Swedish Chairmanship of the OSCE “for their contribution to the process.”
Over 20 Azerbaijani citizens, including 14 civilians have been killed and more than 85 injured in mine explosions since Azerbaijan regained control over its territories in November 2020.
Armenia had refused to provide maps of thousands of mines it planted in Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven surrounding regions that it occupied since the war in the early 1990s.
Aghdam, along with Kalbajar and Lachin regions was returned to Azerbaijan in line with the Russian-brokered trilateral statement of November 10.
