Azerbaijan and Armenia pause to hand over war dead but peace remains elusive
As fog rolled into a darkening valley in Nagorno-karabakh, soldiers convened on a battlescarred hilltop to collect the fallen. Wrapped in white sheets, each corpse was lifted on to minibuses by teams of Armenian servicemen, tasked with the grim duty of collecting the dead. These, though, were not their comrades, but their sworn enemies – the Azerbaijani troops they have spent the past six weeks fighting.
Yet, each lifeless body that littered the roadside was handled with care, despite the bitter defeat that the gunned-down Azeri soldiers had helped inflict upon the Armenian side.
“We have a job to do – that is all,” said Babken, a young Armenian soldier in his early 20s. “The peace deal is cruel. I was devastated that we sacrificed so many lives and ended up losing so much land. But these bodies must be returned, and we, too, must receive ours.”
A bearded fighter in his 50s looked on, smoking a cigarette. “My son is trapped on the other side,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s a prisoner or if he’s dead. Either way, I want to see him.”
The exchange of bodies from the now-silent battlefield around NagornoKarabakh was prompted by last week’s Russian-brokered peace deal, which halted fighting around the disputed territory and secured territorial advances for Azerbaijan. One key term stipulates the exchange of war dead.
Loaded with their cargo, the minibuses formed a line on the rutted asphalt as a green vehicle bearing a Russian flag arrived, driven by one of the 2,000 peacekeepers that Moscow has now sent to the region.
The Russian soldier got out, a blue surgical mask around his face, and spoke briefly with the Armenian platoon. Ten minutes later, the minibuses set off down the empty highway to complete the exchange, disappearing into the mist.
Co-ordinated by the Russian peacekeeping force, and overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the body swap came amid continued turmoil in NagornoKarabakh. Thousands of ethnic Armenians living in the territory – a separatist enclave within Azerbaijan
‘The peace deal is cruel. I was devastated we sacrificed so many lives and ended up losing so much land. But these bodies must be returned’
that broke away in the Nineties – have been fleeing towns and villages before control of certain areas is handed back to Azerbaijan. Over the weekend, roads were jammed with traffic ahead of the handover deadline, which Azerbaijan has postponed until next week.
The transfer of land has fuelled fears about the future of Armenian religious sites within them. Over the weekend, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, told his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, to guarantee against the desecration of Christian churches and monasteries.
“[Mr Putin] underscored the importance of securing the safety and normal church life of these shrines,” the Kremlin said.
The body swap took place on the road that connects the territory’s capital, Stepanakert – which is still held by ethnic Armenians – with Shushi, a nearby town now taken by Azeris. The town – known as Shusha to
Azeris – is a site of profound cultural importance to both sides. Azerbaijan regards it as the birthplace of poets and musicians, while Armenians used to flock to its Christian cathedral, which now has a missile hole in its dome.
Before the exchange, corpses had been left exposed to the elements for days, scattered by the road.
Among the dead, one man simply appeared to be sleeping; another had been reduced to a headless torso.
Nearby, in Azerbaijani-held territory, around a hundred dead ethnic Armenian soldiers lay strewn by the roadside, according to a Reuters report. The Armenian government said more than 1,300 of its soldiers died in the conflict, while Azerbaijan has not disclosed military casualty figures.
Meanwhile, relatives of missing ethnic Armenian soldiers were gathering outside the Red Cross building in Stepanakert, desperate for news of their own missing loved ones. As weary-looking figures asked Red Cross staff when the bodies would arrive, one woman sat by the entrance alone, sobbing into her hands.
While both sides looked to be observing the protocols of the corpse exchange, elsewhere there is little sign of reconciliation. Many homes in areas set to be handed back to Azerbaijani control have been torched by their fleeing Armenian owners, who do not want Azeris commandeering them.
Hayk Harutunyan, a 24-year-old lawyer from Yerevan, had come to help his aunt and uncle pack up their home before setting it alight.
“To be honest, none of this feels real,” he said, as a blaze engulfed his relatives’ dwelling. “One day, my aunt and uncle may be able to return, but who knows. They are very strong people to have the courage to burn down their own house.”