Your trusted source

The Armenian side has handed the body of Azerbaijani serviceman Chingiz Salman Gurbanov, 1994, over to the representative of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. The handover, that took place on Ijevan-Gazakh road section at the Armenian-Azerbaijani international border on February 5, was facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

According to the report by Defense Ministry of Armenia, the transfer took place after the forensic examination of the body within the criminal case initiated by Armenia’s’ National Security Service (NSS) when the investigative body saw no need for keeping the body further. The criminal case was initiated after the sabotage infiltration attempt by the Azerbaijan Armed Forces on December 29, 2016.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reports that immediately after the incident on the international border on 29 December 2016, the ICRC offered its services, in its role as neutral intermediary, to facilitate the transfer of the soldier's body.

The ICRC has been carrying out humanitarian work in the region related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since 1992.

In April last year, following an escalation in hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the ICRC assisted the sides in several operations to search for the bodies of those killed in action and retrieve them from the battlefield, along the Line of Contact. The ICRC also facilitated the handover of the bodies.