BAKU, July 4. /TASS/. Baku has handed 15 Armenian citizens to Yerevan in return for maps of minefields in the Fizuli and Zangilan regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
"On July 3, 2021, at the initiative of the Russian Federation, Armenia provided Azerbaijan with maps of about 92,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines planted in the Fizuli and Zangilan regions during the occupation," the statement says. "As a humane step, Azerbaijan handed 15 people of Armenian descent to Armenia, who were sentenced to imprisonment by court and whose terms have expired."
Azerbaijan thanked Rustam Muradov, commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh, for mediation in obtaining the minefield maps.
The Foreign Ministry said in the statement that "the maps of minefields will save the lives of tens of thousands of people, including field engineers, and will accelerate the implementation of construction and reconstruction projects initiated by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in the liberated territories, along with the process of return of internally displaced persons."
After the hostilities ceased in Nagorno-Karabakh last autumn, Baku regained control over seven districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh, including the Fizuli and Zangilan ones. Demining of the areas impacted by the conflict remains one of the key post-war issues between Baku and Yerevan.
On June 12, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry reported that 15 Armenian military personnel had returned to Armenia in exchange for maps of 97,000 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines planted in the Aghdam region. The ministry added that the exchange took place on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border in the presence of Georgian representatives.