Armenia/Azerbaijan: ICRC facilitates transfer of body of soldier

Geneva (ICRC) – The body of an Azerbaijani soldier was returned from Armenia to Azerbaijan today in a transfer facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). 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 29 December 2016, the ICRC offered its services, in its role as neutral intermediary, to facilitate the transfer of the soldier's body.

In April last year, following an escalation in hostilities in the 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.

For further information, please contact:

Ilaha Huseynova, ICRC Baku, tel: +994 50 316 00 24

Zara Amatuni, ICRC Yerevan, tel: +374 99 011 360

Krista Armstrong, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 217 32 87