Azerbaijan stresses resolution of missing persons as path to durable peace

Addressing the missing persons problem is essential for reconciliation and the establishment of durable peace, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, has said in a post regarding Azerbaijani citizens who remain missing.

The issue of missing persons remains one of the most painful humanitarian consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

More than three decades after the First Karabakh War, 4,009 Azerbaijani citizens remain registered as missing. Thousands of families continue to live with… pic.twitter.com/xOWzNrCzDi

— Hikmet Hajiyev (@HikmetHajiyev) June 11, 2026

“The issue of missing persons remains one of the most painful humanitarian consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

More than three decades after the First Karabakh War, 4,009 Azerbaijani citizens remain registered as missing. Thousands of families continue to live with uncertainty, deprived of the fundamental right to know the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

As a result of ongoing search, recovery and identification efforts, 889 sets of human remains have been exhumed, 313 missing persons have been identified through DNA and forensic analysis, and 226 have been returned to their families for dignified burial.

The discovery of 32 mass graves in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories provides further evidence of the scale of the humanitarian tragedy and highlights the urgent need for continued cooperation in clarifying the fate of the missing.

Addressing the issue of missing persons is not only a humanitarian obligation. It is a matter of justice, human dignity, reconciliation and lasting peace.

Every identified person brings a family closer to answers. Every recovered remain helps restore truth and preserve memory,” Hajiyev wrote.

According to Azerbaijan’s State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, as of early 2026, a total of around 4,005 Azerbaijani citizens are registered as missing due to Armenia’s military aggression, with the overwhelming majority (3,999) from the First Karabakh War in the 1990s and 6 from the Second (Patriotic) War.

Of those missing from the First Karabakh War, 3,218 are servicemen, and 781 are civilians (including 71 children, 287 women, and 334 elderly), and the Commission has identified and returned the remains of 220 missing persons from that period to their families for burial.

Azerbaijani authorities continue active search, excavation, and identification efforts in liberated territories, including in challenging areas like the Murovdag mountains, discovering mass graves and using DNA analysis to clarify fates.

By Jeyhun Aghazada