Captive Armenian man handed over to Yerevan

An Armenian man held in Azerbaijan after illegally crossing the state border last month has been handed over to his home country, the Baku-based state committee for captives said.

The handover, mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, took place on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border near the village of Bala Cafarli in the western Qazax District, the committee said.

Sarkis Ananyan, 53, had crossed the border in the same district on August 26.

The handover passed off without incidents.

Azerbaijan is in a state of war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region that was captured by Armenian forces in the early 1990s.

Backed by Russia, Armenia also seized seven Azerbaijani districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, expelling over 700,000 civilians in what Baku calls ethnic cleansing.

Major hostilities ended with a ceasefire 20 years ago but no peace agreement has been signed.

Bakudaily.Az