The Russian Ministry of Defense and personally the head of the department Sergei Shoigu contributed to the organization of a humanitarian corridor between Azerbaijan and Armenia for the exchange of bodies of the dead soldiers. Aide to the President of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev, spoke about this on October 30.
According to him, Shoigu used his contacts with the Armenian Defense Ministry to provide a humanitarian corridor along the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Tovuz and Gazakh regions.
The exchange mechanism has been developed with the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the OSCE High Representative, RIA Novosti specifies.
Hajiyev added that a new mechanism for resolving the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is not needed. Baku uses all the existing opportunities.
The aide to the President of Azerbaijan also said earlier that on the eve of Baku, he handed over to Yerevan about 30 bodies of dead officers and soldiers of the Armenian armed forces.
Earlier that day, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the introduction of Russian peacekeepers into Nagorno-Karabakh could be the optimal solution to the conflict. On October 29, Armenian Prime Minister’s advisor Vagharshak Harutyunyan stated that Russia will play a key role in maintaining the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Yerevan and Baku have disputed the ownership of Karabakh, on the territory of which mainly Armenians live, since 1988. Then the region announced its secession from the Azerbaijan SSR. During the armed confrontation, Baku lost control over Karabakh and seven other regions. The situation escalated on September 27, the parties began full-scale hostilities.