BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 10. The threat of landmines is creating significant difficulties in determining the whereabouts of missing persons, said Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov, Trend reports.
Speaking today during a meeting with Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Kathryne Bomberger, Bayramov highlighted the ongoing challenges the country faces in this regard.
He pointed out that the issue of missing persons remains a top priority for Azerbaijan, noting that as a result of Armenia's aggression in the early 1990s, up to 4,000 Azerbaijanis, including civilians, women, and children, lost their lives.
Bayramov emphasized the active role played by Azerbaijan's State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons, which has been organizing international conferences since 2023 to raise awareness about this issue. He stressed the need to mobilize international efforts to resolve the matter of missing persons.
The Minister underscored the importance of clarifying the fate of the missing not only for the sake of justice and rule of law but also for the normalization of relations in the post-conflict period. He emphasized the significant role of the international community in this process. Bayramov also mentioned that 23 mass graves have been found in the territories liberated from occupation, but the process of locating the missing is severely hampered by the landmine threat in these areas.
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