BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 10. The State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons of Azerbaijan is hosting a presentation of the "Assessment Report: Accounting for Missing Persons in the Republic of Azerbaijan" by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Trend reports.
The event is attended by members and staff of the working group of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons of Azerbaijan, high-ranking representatives of the international commission, deputies, senior officials of relevant government agencies, as well as representatives of NGOs and the media.
The event highlighted that 3,983 people were registered missing following Armenia's aggression.
Of them, 3,977 citizens went missing during the First Karabakh War, and six during the Second Karabakh War. The persons include 3,209 military servicemen and 774 civilians.
Of the total number of missing persons, 3,698 are men, and 285 are women.
The Secretary of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Citizens of Azerbaijan Gazanfar Ahmadov noted that the remains of 688 presumed missing Azerbaijani citizens were found as of March 1.
He emphasized that the identities of 165 people who went missing in the First Karabakh War have been established and promulgated.
“The letter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, received by the State Commission in May 2018, contained information that at a meeting with the Director of Policy and Cooperation of the International Commission on Missing Persons-ICMP (International Commission on missing persons-ICMP) of the Azerbaijani Embassy in the Netherlands held on May 17, 2018, the possibilities of cooperation with this structure were discussed and an opinion was requested on whether this cooperation is carried out based on membership in the organization or a bilateral agreement,” Gazanfar Ahmedov added.
At the same time, he noted that the State Commission on this issue considered it appropriate to hold talks with ICMP with the participation of a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, given that it will be useful in terms of exploring other opportunities in this field and studying international experience.
“In 2021, on the initiative of the Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration (PA), Honorable Hikmet Hajiyev, repeated discussions were held with the ICRC. In November 2021, during a meeting with our country's Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands in The Hague, ICMP proposed Azerbaijan to cooperate and sign a relevant document.
In this regard, several online meetings and discussions with the ICMP leadership were held since the beginning of 2022 with the participation of the PA, MFA, State Security Service (SSS) and the State Commission working group.
On April 4, 2022, ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger and Director for Policy and Cooperation Andreas Kleiser visited Azerbaijan. The Protocol between the State Commission and the ICRC was signed during the visit,” he said.
Furthermore, Deputy Chief of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan Sharafat Hasanov, emphasized that since 1988, due to Armenia's unjustified territorial claims against Azerbaijan and the fact of its occupation, our country has been involved in an armed conflict, which resulted in a large-scale humanitarian disaster:
He underscored that Armenia's aggression resulted in complete destruction of over 900 settlements, causing damage worth billions of dollars, and contaminating 10,000 ha of land with mines and unexploded ordnance.
Hasanov noted that 107 people were killed after being captured and tortured.
He reminded that 3,983 people were registered with the State Commission missing as a result of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan.
“Of them, 3,977 people went missing in the first Karabakh war in the 1990s, and 6 people in the 44-day second Karabakh war that took place in 2020.
Of the 3,983 missing persons, 3,209 are military and 774 are civilians. Of the civilians, 75 are minors, 116 are women, and 315 are elderly. The investigation proved that 170 Azerbaijani captives were killed by torture,” the deputy chief added.
