O ne of the main provisions of the November 9 trilateral ceasefire statement on Artsakh, is the exchange of corpses and POW’s. The 8^th point of the statement notes: “There will be an exchange of prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons including corpses”.

More than 3 weeks has passed since the signing of the trilateral agreement and there is no serious progress in returning bodies. Realistically, the problem is even more complicated due to the fact that the statement doesn’t set any deadlines for the mentioned issue.

Russia’s role as a mediator in the tripartite statement is quite big, both on the agreement on the exchange of bodies and captives, as well as on other issues. Russia, at least, is perceived by the Armenian society as a guarantee of the implementation of the agreements reached.

That’s the reason why the Armenian authorities raise the issue of the exchange of the prisoners of war and the bodies of victims both in terms of bilateral relations and within the framework of international organizations.

On November 30, the President of Armenia A. Sargsyan approached the President of Russia V. Putin on the issue of returning the prisoners of war and hostages who are held in captivity in Azerbaijan. The letter particularly states, “The Armenian society and the Diaspora are deeply concerned about the situation of soldiers and civilians who are in captivity in Azerbaijan. The mediation of the President of Russia will be a great support to resolve the extremely sensitive issue of returning our military captives and civilians, as well as the bodies of the victims captured by Azerbaijan”.

One of the institutions of the Armenian-Russian Strategic Alliance on a multilateral scale is the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). As Russia plays a key role in this structure, the Armenian authorities try to raise the issue of exchanging prisoners and corpses on this platform as well.

On December 12, ahead of the CSTO Collective Security Council’s session, the sitting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the member states of the structure was held. In his speech, the RA Foreign Minister A. Ayvazyan emphasized the solution of humanitarian problems, as well as the urgent exchange of prisoners of war and hostages and the clarification of the data of missing persons as a prior step to coping with the consequences of the Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh. "Despite the relevant provision in the statement, Azerbaijan still hesitates to show readiness to implement it", noted the RA Foreign Minister

On December 1, the next sitting of the Council of the Ministers of Defense of the CSTO member states took place in the format of a video conference. Defense Minister of Armenia Vagharshak Harutyunyan paid special attention to the efforts of the Russian Federation aimed at the stabilization of the military-political situation in the region and the effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping mission being carried out in Artsakh and emphasized the activities of the humanitarian nature. He also stressed the importance of finding and exchanging the killed servicemen, captives, hostages and missing persons.

On December 2, Vladimir Putin chaired an online meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council at the level of the heads of the member states. In his speech, the RA Prime Minister N. Pashinyan considers the exchange of prisoners of war, hostages and other detainees, as well as the exchange of bodies of killed servicemen and the clarification of the fate of the missing the most urgent issue after the signing of the trilateral statement on November 9. “These are urgent questions. The Armenian side is ready to speed up this process and increase its efficiency. At the same time, we need to rule out any violence against the prisoners of war and detainees and the humiliation of their dignity”, noted the RA Prime Minister.

According to the Prime Minister, the issue is on the agenda of Armenian-Russian bilateral relations. They are closely working with Russian President to solve such problems as the search for missing people, the exchange of prisoners of war and bodies of the victims.

On December 1, at a press conference summing up the results of the meeting at the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, the issue of exchanging the captives and the bodies of the victims, Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov expressed Moscow’s interest in resolving the problem as soon as possible. “In order to effectively exchange bodies and detainees, an inventory of the state of affairs in this area must be taken. The military leaders on both sides must have accurate lists of missing persons so that they can deal with this in a meaningful and concrete way. Given the terrain and the way the hostilities developed, it was difficult to deal with these issues immediately after they ended, especially in the absence of clear lists of those who are considered missing. It is difficult to talk about any deliberate steps to delay this process”, noted Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov [1].

According to S. Lavrov, Russia made active efforts to involve the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in exchanging prisoners of war and the bodies of victims. On November 17, as a result of the agreement reached with ICRC President P. Maurer, the structure already returned its employees to Artsakh. ICRC envisages its presence in the region to 400 people, including in Yerevan, Baku and in Artsakh itself. It is also planned to significantly increase the ICRC's funding requests for activities - to 45 million Swiss francs.

It is clear that the issue of exchanging prisoners, hostages, finding the bodies of the missing and the dead is related with material difficulties. However, the concerns of the Armenian side about the artificial delay in resolving the issue are not baseless. As the country in a more favorable position, Azerbaijan can allow itself not to fulfill its obligations regarding the November 9 trilateral statement or to delay them and turn it into a playing card to extort additional concessions on various other issues. This has become clear indirectly by the inhuman treatment of Armenian prisoners of war. Such Azerbaijani behavior should be inadmissible for international organizations, including the CSTO and for its key role-player Russia. 

---

[1] The quote was made non-verbal.