August 30 is the International Day of the Missing.

Today, on December 21, 2010, it was established by the UN General Assembly.

Azerbaijan is one of the countries facing the most painful problems related to missing people in the world.

There is still no information about the fate of thousands of Azerbaijanis who disappeared during the first Karabakh war as a result of the aggression and occupation policy of Armenia.

The State Commission on Prisoners and Missing Hostage Citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan was established in 1993 in order to eliminate the consequences of the humanitarian crisis caused by Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan.

Since its establishment, the State Commission has closely cooperated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in accordance with international humanitarian law norms to which the Republic of Azerbaijan has joined.

As a result of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan

During the First Karabakh War,

3890

Azerbaijani citizens were registered as missing persons at the State Commission.

3171

of them

are military,

719

are civilians.

71

of them are

civilians

minors,

267

women, and

326

elderly people.

Out of the total number of missing people, 872 people, including 29 children, 98 women and 112 old people, were taken hostage or remained in the occupied territories.

The prisoners and hostages who were released later confirmed that they saw those people alive.

During the entire period of the conflict, Armenia hid information about these persons from international organizations and avoided providing information about their further fate.

Representatives of the ICRC met with 54 of the missing persons in the First Karabakh War while they were still alive when they were detained by the Armenian side.

Later, the corpses of 17 of them were handed over, although the death of 33 was reported, their corpses were not returned, and it was not possible to get any information about 4 at all.

During the first Karabakh war,

1480

Azerbaijanis were released from Armenian captivity.

According to the framework agreement "On the collection and centralized management of ante-mortem information on missing persons" signed between the Representation of the ICRC in Azerbaijan and the State Commission in April 2008, since 2014, the work of collecting biological (DNA) samples from the families of missing persons started.

During the past period,

10,309

biological samples were collected

from family members of

3,315 victims .

Starting from November 2021, the work of extracting DNA profiles from the collected biological samples has been started.

For this purpose, profiles have been extracted for each of the 1024 biological samples so far.

The main reason preventing the determination of the fate of the missing persons during the conflict was the fact that Armenia occupied the territories of Azerbaijan until November 10, 2020.

In the current conditions, the main facts that prevent the determination of the fate of the missing are that Armenia does not provide information about the burial places and the presence of numerous mines in the territories freed from occupation.

Despite being repeatedly raised and discussed at high-level meetings and on various platforms, the Armenian side does not provide information on the grave sites of the missing persons in the First Karabakh War.

In the new situation that arose after the victory in the 44-day Patriotic War, a number of measures were taken to clarify the fate of the missing persons in the First Karabakh War.

***

From February 2021 to April 2022, during the exhumation carried out in mass graves identified in the territory of Shusha district, Dashalti village, Khojavand district, Edilli village, Farrukh and Dashbaşi villages of Khojaly district, which were liberated from occupation, as well as Agdam, Shusha, which were liberated from occupation. , Goygol, Tartar, Fuzuli, Kalbajar and Zangilan regions, during the construction works, the remains of 82 people were identified and taken away.

183 corpses of 191 unknown martyrs who died during the First Karabakh War and were exhumed from 191 unknown graves in 21 cemeteries located in 13 cities and districts of the Republic.

In addition to long-term cooperation with the ICRC, the State Commission signed a Protocol on cooperation with representatives of the International Commission on Missing Persons in April of this year, hoping that it will open up new opportunities in solving the tasks ahead.

At present, the search for 6

Azerbaijani servicemen who went missing in the Patriotic War

continues.

During Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan, Armenia grossly violated many international legal norms, including the requirements of international humanitarian law.

Contrary to the rules of war, the civilian population was not spared, instead they were taken hostage and in many cases killed.

In many cases, after unimaginable tortures were given to prisoners and hostages, they were killed and their corpses were not even presented to the Azerbaijani side in order to eliminate the traces of torture;

The barbaric behavior of the Armenian side regarding hostages can be classified as follows:

- Killing of Azerbaijani hostages on the graves of Armenian soldiers and on the commemoration days of the "Armenian genocide";

- Turning captives and hostages into anti-Turkish and anti-Azerbaijani ideological-propaganda tools, handing them over to the civilian population and humiliating them in the squares in order to increase the feeling of hatred, putting them in an insulting position and driving them around residential areas, forcing them to appear on various TV channels and give interviews against their country;

- The use of prisoners and hostages as slaves, their use in the demolition and looting of historical monuments, cemeteries, houses and administrative buildings in occupied settlements, in other words, their use in acts of vandalism and their employment in harmful production areas;

- Terrible torture and detention in inhumane conditions, regardless of age and gender;

- Detention of prisoners and hostages in prisons together with persons of Armenian origin who have committed serious crimes in Armenia;

- Involvement in illegal interrogations accompanied by terrible torture to obtain various information contrary to the Geneva Conventions;

- Turning captives and hostages into various medical and other experimental objects, irradiating their bodies and injecting substances of unknown composition;

In most cases, the following human rights of our missing citizens were violated:

- Not to be tortured;

- The right to be recognized as an individual before the law;

- The right to freedom and immunity;

- Right to life.

The Armenian side does not cooperate in finding the missing citizens of Azerbaijan.

It is clear that the Armenian side, which treats its captives and hostages in violation of international law and brutally kills them in most cases, refuses to cooperate in this direction in order to prevent the revelation of its criminal acts.

During the occupation of Kalbajar region in April 1993, one of such war crimes of Armenia against the people of Azerbaijan was exposed by the radio counter-intelligence service of the relevant state institutions of Azerbaijan.

In the obtained material, an urgent order was issued from the headquarters radio station in the Basarkecher region of Armenia to the main radio station in the Kalbajar combat zone to all mobile radio stations in the region to immediately destroy and bury captured and hostage Azerbaijani citizens, including the elderly, women and children.

The goal was to hide the traces of their crimes from the international delegation that came to the war zone at that time.

***

There are facts that relatives who were looking for their loved ones were deceived and taken hostage or killed.

- On December 31, 1992, his brother Isayev Jahangir Ismayil oglu and his sister's wife Mammadov Mammad Garib oglu, who were engaged in the search for Isayev Asgar Ismayil oglu, who went missing in the border area with Armenia in Gazakh region, went to the border area of ​​Armenia with Georgia on November 7, 1993 and talked with Armenians there. entered and in the end they were taken to Armenia under the pretense that they would meet Asgar Isayev and release him.

At present, the fate of all three of them is unknown.

- In February 1993, relatives of the Azerbaijani Army soldier Guliyev Khagani Nureddin oglu, who went missing during the battles for the Aghdara region of Azerbaijan, established contact with Armenians living in Russia on their own initiative.

The Armenians, who convinced them that Khagani Guliyev was alive, said that they would release him in exchange for 25,000 US dollars.

Khagani Guliyev's brother Mahir Guliyev, who collected those funds with the help of his close relatives, went to Russia in the summer of 1996.

However, the Armenians killed Mahir Guliyev himself, who brought the specified amount, took the money and ran away.

There are also facts of coercive co-operation of captives and hostages by means of threats and blackmail by the Armenian special services and inciting them to commit acts of terrorism and sabotage against the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Khojaly genocide is the most prominent example of violation of international humanitarian law norms by Armenia.

On February 26, 1992, the city of Khojaly was completely besieged by Armenia and razed to the ground, civilians were ambushed and killed.

613 people, including 63 children, 106 women, and 70 old people were brutally killed.

8 families were completely destroyed, 25 children lost both, 130 children lost one of their parents.

487 people, including 76 children, were injured.

Hundreds of Azerbaijanis were captured and taken hostage during the Khojaly genocide.

The fate of 196 people, including 36 children and 65 women, remains unknown.

Every state has an obligation to investigate the crimes and human rights violations mentioned, bring the perpetrators to justice, prevent the repetition of such violations, as well as ensure the relevant rights of the victims' families.

In this context, Azerbaijan also implements all relevant measures in accordance with the requirements of international law and national legislation regarding missing citizens and their family members.

The State Commission on Prisoners and Missing, Hostage Citizens operates in the country.

The commission carries out measures related to the repatriation of captured and hostages, the search for missing persons, coordinates the activities of relevant state bodies, public and international organizations in this field, collects information about captured and missing citizens, and ensures the registration and systematization of this information. and performs other duties assigned to the Commission.

Azerbaijan is working to attract global attention to the issue of missing and hostages at the international level.

At the initiative of Azerbaijan, a resolution on "Missing persons" is adopted in the UN General Assembly every two years.

At the same time, Azerbaijan is the main initiator of the resolution "On the release of women and children taken hostage during armed conflicts" adopted by the UN Commission on the Status of Women.