Azerbaijan raises issue of missing citizens at UN General Assembly

The plight of nearly 4,000 missing Azerbaijani citizens was raised during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to Caliber.Az, citing a statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on X, Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov delivered remarks at a high-level meeting on “Persons Missing in Armed Conflicts: Advancing the Search for Answers.”

Mammadov highlighted the fate of thousands of Azerbaijanis who went missing as a result of Armenia’s aggression, calling for greater international efforts to secure truth and justice for the victims and their families.

The appeal comes amid ongoing discoveries of mass graves in the territories Azerbaijan liberated during military operations. On August 30, authorities confirmed the discovery of 28 such sites. Excavations and exhumations have already been conducted, yielding significant findings.

Eldar Samadov, deputy head of the Working Group of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Missing Persons, and Hostages, told local media that 218 bodies have been recovered so far. “As a result of anatomical and molecular genetic examinations, the identities of 60 of them were established, and their remains were handed over to their families,” he said.

The figures underline the humanitarian cost of the conflict. Since the early 1990s, 3,990 Azerbaijani citizens have been declared missing, including six during the 44-day war in 2020. Among them are 71 children, 284 women, and 316 elderly people.

Numerous remains have been uncovered in the Karabakh region since the 2020 war, particularly in areas such as Aghdam, Khojaly, Shusha, and Khojavand. To date, more than 600 bodies—many believed to be victims of the First Karabakh War (1988–1994)—have been exhumed from mass graves and individual burial sites.

Investigations into these sites have often revealed evidence of torture and other war crimes. Azerbaijani authorities, in cooperation with international partners, are carrying out extensive forensic and genetic analyses to identify the remains, aiming to provide long-awaited closure for the families of the missing.

By Tamilla Hasanova