Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate with Armenia in resolving the issue of missing persons – Sharafat Hasanov

Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate with Armenia in resolving the issue of missing persons, Deputy Head of the State Security Service Sharafat Hasanov said.

According to APA, Hasanov made the remarks at the international conference entitled “Modern Approaches to Resolving the Issue of Missing Persons and Strengthening Cooperation,” held within the framework of cooperation with the International Commission on Missing Persons.

“The fate of our citizens who went missing as a result of Armenia’s military aggression against Azerbaijan has been seriously affected not only by the destruction of infrastructure, settlements, landscapes, terrain, and even cemeteries due to mines and unexploded ordnance during the 30-year occupation of the territories, as well as acts of vandalism, but also by the Armenian side’s failure to provide information about the locations of burial sites.

It is known that high-ranking Armenian military officials interviewed after the 44-day Second Karabakh War, including former Armenian Deputy Defense Minister General Garik Melkonyan, former National Assembly deputy Samvel Babayan, and others, have repeatedly stated that they possess information about the burial sites of missing Azerbaijani servicemen, but this information has still not been provided to the Azerbaijani side. Moreover, former Armenian Deputy Defense Minister General Manvel Grigoryan openly admitted in media interviews that he personally held Azerbaijani prisoners of war. We believe that all of this, in addition to contradicting the generally accepted principles of humanity, poses a threat to the norms of international humanitarian law.

The Republic of Azerbaijan is open to the world in resolving the issue of missing persons, and we reaffirm our readiness to cooperate with the Armenian side in this area,” he noted.

The new system being developed will allow citizens of Azerbaijan and Armenia to confidentially provide information about missing persons, including burial sites.

“The information will be used exclusively for humanitarian purposes, and the person providing the information will not be held liable under any circumstances. The goal of the system is to contribute to clarifying the fate of missing persons,” he said.