BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 3. The "Families of Missing Persons in Karabakh" public association of Azerbaijan has sent an appeal to the UN, Trend reports.
"We, as a public organization uniting family members of 3,890 Azerbaijanis missing as a result of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan, appeal on behalf of their families to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly Csaba Krösi, Chairman of the UN Human Rights Council Václav Bálek, and UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Volker Turk," the organization said.
The fundamental right of their families to learn about people who go missing during armed situations is acknowledged in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949.
""However, because Armenia won't give information regarding missing Azerbaijanis, we have been denied this privilege for more than 30 years. Parents depart this world holding their missing children's images close to their chests and with a longing for them. Only by hearing about their lost parents can children imagine them. In Azerbaijan, thousands of families experience daily tragedies like these," the organization added.
20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory was occupied, towns and villages were destroyed, roughly 1 million Azerbaijani citizens became refugees and internally displaced people, about 20,000 people were killed, and 50,000 people lost their lives as a result of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan in the 1990s of the 20th century.
3,890 persons were listed as missing as a result of Armenia's armed activity against Azerbaijan during the first Karabakh war. 3,171 of them are members of the armed forces; 719 are civilians, including 326 elderly individuals, 267 women, and 71 children.
According to witness evidence, 872 people out of the entire number of missing people were either kidnapped or abandoned in the controlled territory, including 29 children, 98 women, and 112 old people. In rare instances, people were slaughtered along with their entire families and generations of loved ones while going missing. According to our data, 61 families lost between 2 and 7 relatives during the first Karabakh war.
Having conducted a counter-terrorism operation in September 2020 in connection with the provocation of the Armenian Armed Forces, the Azerbaijani army liberated its lands from occupation and implemented the resolutions adopted by the UN in 1993. However, excessive mining of territories by Armenia during the occupation period did not allow the people evicted from there to return to their native lands.
In addition, Armenia does not provide Azerbaijan with accurate maps of minefields or data on mass graves of the dead. Over the past three years, more than 300 Azerbaijani citizens have been victims of mine explosions due to the lack of accurate mine maps.
The steps taken by the relevant state structures of Azerbaijan to clarify the fate of the missing, including taking biological samples from families, extracting DNA profiles, and conducting excavations in the liberated territories, give us great hope. In a short period of time, nine mass graves were discovered.
One mass grave was found in the village of Bashlybel of Kalbajar district, three in the village of Edilli of Khojavend district, two in the village of Dashalty of Shusha district, one in the village of Farrukh of Khojaly district, one in the city of Shusha, and one in the village of Saryjaly of Aghdam district.
"We ask you to call on Armenia to provide information about the fate of the missing and to present the Azerbaijani side with the places of mass graves," the organization said.
"The problem of missing persons has a global character and is relevant not only for Azerbaijan. It is important that the UN system also intensify its efforts to effectively address this issue. We urge you to contribute to the creation of the Institute of the UN Special Rapporteur on Missing Persons," they said in the appeal.