An Azerbaijani government commission said the five soldiers were repatriated “with Hungary’s mediation” but gave no other details.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry confirmed their release. A ministry spokesman also identified them.
It was not clear whether the handover followed a direct contact between Armenian and Hungarian authorities.
Armenia froze diplomatic relations with the central European nation in 2012 after the Hungarian government extradited to Azerbaijan an Azerbaijani army officer who hacked to death a sleeping Armenian colleague in Budapest in 2004. The officer whom a Hungarian court sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006 was pardoned, rewarded and promoted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Unlike other European Union member states, Hungary has openly supported Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that support three days after the outbreak of last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
A total of 32 Armenian soldiers were taken prisoner during the November 16 fighting on the border which left at least 13 troops from both sides dead. Azerbaijan freed eleven POWs on December 4 and ten others on December 19.
For its part, the Armenian military detained two Azerbaijani servicemen on December 18. They both were freed two days later.