Azerbaijan to take all legal steps over discovered mass graves PHOTO

Azerbaijan will take all legal measures in connection with mass graves found on its territories liberated from Armenia’s decades-long occupation during the 44-day war in 2020.

The statement came from a senior assistant to the military prosecutor, head of the Military Prosecutor's Office press service, Firad Aliyev, Azertag reports.

"In connection with crimes against peace and humanity, terrorism, premeditated murders and other criminal acts committed against the Azerbaijani people by the Armenian armed forces and illegal Armenian armed formations, criminal cases have been initiated in the Azerbaijani Military Prosecutor's Office under Criminal Code Articles 103 (genocide), 120.2.12 (murder motivated by national, racial, religious hatred or enmity) and other articles, the procedural management of the investigation is conducted by Khanlar Valiyev. All legal measures will be taken in accordance with the requirements of the legislation and the norms and principles of international law," Firad Aliyev said.

Firad Aliyev noted that Deputy Prosecutor General, Military Prosecutor Khanlar Valiyev had visited the specified territories and inspected the progress of the investigation on the spot, giving appropriate recommendations and instructions.

The Military Prosecutor's Office, in collaboration with the State Security Service, the State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other relevant structures, exhumed remains from mass graves discovered in the Shusha’s Dashalti, Khojavand’s Edilli, Aghdam’s Sirkhavand, Khojaly’s Farrukh, Fuzuli’s Yukhari  Seyidahmadli villages.

The remains of bodies on the Shusha prison's territory, presumably belonging to people who went missing during the First Karabakh War, were also exhumed. Forensic medical and molecular genetic examinations and other related activities were scheduled.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had been locked in a decades-old armed conflict over the latter’s Karabakh (Garabagh) region. Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched full-blown military aggression against Azerbaijan, marking the longest and deadliest war in the South Caucasus region. The bloody war ended with a ceasefire in 1994, which saw Armenia forcibly occupying 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 3,890 went missing, and one million others were expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing policy conducted by Armenia.

In early April 2023, Azerbaijan published the list of mass grave sites in the direction of Fuzuli Distric’s Yukhari Seyidahmadli, Ashagi Seyidahmadli, Malikjanli, Yukhari Veysalli villages, in the direction of Jabrayil Dsitrict’s Darzili, Chaytumas villages, near Kalbajar District’s Baghirli, Yanshag, Qamishlig, Aghdaban villages, in the area called Buzlug mountain, on the height of Murovdag, in the territory of the city of Kalbajar, in Aghdam District’s Sugovushan, Sarijali, Garagashli, Gulluja villages, Gubadli District’s Goyyal village, in the Shusha city cemetery, Khojavand District’s Edilli village, and in the territory of Khankandi city, Khojaly and Khojavand districts, as well as the former Aghdara district, which are currently under the temporary control of Russian peacekeepers.

Armenia, which promised to cooperate with Azerbaijan to determine the fate of about 4,000 missing Azerbaijanis, still fails to return the bodies of servicemen, who went missing during the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s.

Armenia has yet to provide information about the mass graves of 3,890 missing Azerbaijani citizens (including 71 children, 267 women and 326 elderly people).