Baku, November 20, AZERTAC

The “Missing Families of Karabakh” Public Union has issued a statement regarding the “Missing Persons” resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly.

AZERTAC presents the statement: “The “Missing Families of Karabakh” Public Union welcomes the adoption on November 15, 2024, of the resolution on “Missing Persons” by the UN General Assembly and expresses its gratitude to the state of Azerbaijan, the main author of the document, and other countries that supported it. This international initiative put forward by Azerbaijan, as well as the international events on the problem of missing persons held in Azerbaijan in recent years, has boosted hope that this problem will be resolved by keeping it in the international spotlight.

It is important that the resolution recognizes the fact that people going missing causes tremendous suffering to their families and paves the way for many human rights violations. In addition to keeping the families of the missing waiting, the problem has remained unresolved for many years, which disrupts the unity of our families and violates our right to know the fate of our relatives.

The resolution calls on states to take all necessary measures to prevent people from going missing, properly investigate the causes of such occurrences, clarify the fate of missing persons, and support and cooperate with the families of the missing.

As is known, about four thousand of our compatriots went missing during the First Karabakh War and a further six persons during the Second Karabakh War. Among them are children and women. Two to seven members of 61 families went missing during the First Karabakh War, and no information about them has been provided to us by Armenia over these years. This indicates that the families of the missing Azerbaijanis are facing a great human tragedy.

The liberation of our lands from Armenian occupation has created an opportunity for the Azerbaijani government to search for the missing persons in these territories, find and identify human remains. Although this work has raised great hopes that the years of uncertainty would end, the discovery of only 22 mass graves in the liberated territories—because of Armenia's failure to provide information about them to the Azerbaijani side—is extremely disappointing for us. The fact that our dear ones were treated and killed in such an inhumane manner, with their remains hidden in mass graves for years, again proves the scale of the injustice we are facing.

We are grateful to our state for searching for the remains of our missing persons and martyrs, identifying them, and handing them over to their families, as well as organizing funeral ceremonies worthy of the martyrs' memory. A number of families of missing persons have already found some comfort and ended the longing that has persisted for nearly thirty years, replacing the tragedies of uncertainty with the consolation of having a tombstone for their loved ones. However, thousands of families of missing persons are still waiting for this consolation.

It is important for us that the document adopted by the UN also expresses concern about the obstacles posed by the landmine problem to clarifying the fate of the missing and calls on states to cooperate in the safe search for human remains. We know from our own experience that despite the fact that our lands have been free for more than four years, Azerbaijani IDPs still yearn for their homeland due to the danger of landmines. In addition to causing the deaths and injuries of nearly 400 of our compatriots over the past four years, these cruel traps hinder the work being carried out in these territories, including the search for the remains of the missing.

We, the “Missing Families of Karabakh” Public Union, once again call on the Armenian side to honor its international obligations to clarify the fate of the missing, as well as the requirements of the UN General Assembly's resolution on “Missing Persons.” We demand that Armenia stop the violation of our rights, which has continued for more than 30 years, provide information about the location of mass graves, and punish those who committed these crimes. Every missing family has the right to know the fate of their relative!”