MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. The prisoner exchange process continues between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.
"The prisoner exchange process continues," she said in response to a question.
On Monday, 12 people returned to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku on a Russian military plane, while Azerbaijan sent 44 people back. Russian peacekeepers did a lot of preparatory work with both parties to make the exchange happen.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict over the disputed territory, primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them.
On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. The Russian leader said that Azerbaijan and Armenia would maintain the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to the region. In accordance with the statement, the parties need to carry out an "all-for-all" prisoner exchange.