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Presidential Assistant: Azerbaijan not satisfied with ICRC’s work on missing citizens

Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan – Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev

01 May 2026 18:22 (UTC +04:00)

“Of course, we can never forget the painful and bloody memories of the past. As the President has repeatedly noted in his speeches, we will never forget the period of occupation,” Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said in a statement to journalists, APA reports.

According to him, one of the painful consequences of the occupation period is the issue of missing persons: “To date, there is still no information about the fate of nearly 4,000 of our citizens. The majority of them are civilians. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose mandate is primarily based on humanitarian issues and for which additional opportunities were created to operate in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, including the liberated territories, has collected numerous data over 30 years, they have not completed their work, and their mandate has not been fully fulfilled. This issue remains unresolved to this day.”

Hikmat Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan has appealed to Armenia on this issue through various channels: “Even the last time representatives of Armenian civil society were in Azerbaijan, we appealed to them to provide information to the Azerbaijani side based on testimonies of various witnesses. Because families are still waiting for information about their relatives. At the same time, as a result of search operations carried out by the relevant State Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with the conditions created and instructions given by the President, the remains of a number of our citizens have been found and their identities have been established. However, there is still a large amount of work ahead. I would like to reiterate that although these tasks should have been carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross over the past 30 years, they have not done so. At the very least, we do not consider their work satisfactory. Our people and citizens have legitimate expectations in this regard.”