The State Commission established direct contacts with Armenia’s relevant commission in February 2025, holding meetings and exchanging information, Chief of Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, Colonel General Ali Naghiyev, said at the Fourth International Conference held in Azerbaijan within the framework of the Baku Dialogue on Missing Persons, APA reports.
The State Security Service chief said that based on various sources and witness statements, Azerbaijan provided the other side with a list of 834 Azerbaijani citizens who were taken prisoner or hostage during the First Karabakh War and kept hidden from international organizations, as well as detailed information on 104 people: “We also provided information on 54 of our citizens who were officially registered by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The bodies of 17 of them were returned. The bodies of 33 people who were reported to have died in detention were not returned, while the fate of four people has not been disclosed. These families are still waiting for answers.
We have also proposed that relevant DNA samples be provided to identify remains discovered in the liberated territories that are believed to belong to Armenian servicemen. Expert examinations found no matches between the DNA profiles of 50 ethnic Armenians reported missing and submitted by Armenia in January 2026 and the remains that had been discovered. We are ready to cooperate to clarify the fate of missing persons from both sides.
However, accurate and complete information is necessary to achieve results. Armenia must provide all information about the fate of missing Azerbaijanis, mass and individual burial sites, open its archives and create conditions for the collection of witness statements. This would be not only a legal obligation and humanitarian responsibility, but also a practical expression of commitment to peace. Information concerning human lives should not be subject to political conditionality."
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