An Azerbaijani civilian – a woman who had crossed the international border into Armenia on 7 June – was repatriated today under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the ICRC Delegation in Azerbaijan told APA.

She was handed over to Azerbaijani officials at the international border, on the road between Ijevan in Armenia and Gazakh in Azerbaijan.

The ICRC, acting as a neutral intermediary, helped the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities carry out the repatriation. ICRC representatives visited the woman before she was sent back to Azerbaijan to assess her treatment and the conditions in which she was being held.

Based on its mandate under the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC has been present in the region since 1992 in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan’s State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons reported on June 9 that Gatiba Alakbarova, a resident of the Arabaji village of the Gadabay district, crossed the border into Armenian territory on June 7.

The investigation revealed that Gatiba Alakbarova has dispensary registration in the interdistrict mental hospital in Azerbaijan’s Gazakh district, said the commission.

Earlier, Armenian media has released information that Zohra Vardzar qizi (1977), a resident of the Yaniqli village of Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district, crossed the border into Armenia, according to Armen Caprielian, head of Armenia’s working group for missing people, hostage, and captives.

However, Tovuz district police as well as executive authorities have told APA’s western bureau that no one by the naname Zohra Vardzar qizi has lived in Tovuz.

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