BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 11. More than three decades after the First Karabakh War, 4,009 Azerbaijani citizens remain officially registered as missing.
This is stated in a post on X social network by Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan—Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, Hikmet Hajiyev.
Hajiyev described the issue of missing persons as one of the most painful humanitarian consequences of the Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict, noting that thousands of families continue to live with uncertainty regarding the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.
According to him, ongoing search, recovery and identification efforts have led to the exhumation of 889 sets of human remains in Azerbaijan's liberated territories. Through DNA testing and forensic analysis, 313 missing persons have been identified, while the remains of 226 individuals have been returned to their families for dignified burial.
He noted that the discovery of 32 mass graves in the 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," he wrote.
