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State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of NKR, through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office, in accordance with the agreement reached earlier, carried out the exchange of bodies of the deceased between the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan near Bash Karvend settlement on April 10, reports NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to the source, bodies of 18 servicemen of the NKR Defense Army, fallen as a result of the large-scale military aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan on April 2-5, were transferred to the NKR side during the exchange.

NKR State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons at the presence of the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, registered that all bodies of the deceased transferred by the Azerbaijani side had signs of torture and mutilation.

“Those acts, being a flagrant manifestation of inhumanity, run counter to the laws and customs of war and are in grave violation of the international humanitarian law, in particular, the Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (1949), Geneva Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1949) and the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 related to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).

The Karabakh side will seek to ensure that such behaviour of the Azerbaijani side is condemned in strongest terms by the international community and the specialized agencies, and those responsible are brought into account,” reads the statement of NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.