Azerbaijan, Baku, March 9 / Trend K. Zarbaliyeva /
Collecting of information about Azerbaijani citizens, missing as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has been completed.
The first phase of a joint project implemented by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society and the Azerbaijani government has been completed, Head of the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, MP Novruzali Aslanov told Trend.
"The first phase of the project has been completed. A report of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People was made. The collected materials will be transferred to the State Commission. This project will play a big role in determining the fate of missing people," he said.
The number of people missed as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is large, he said. Until now, there is no information about whether they are alive or not.
"Many women do not have information about their husbands. Mothers want to visit the graves of their children. The collected materials in the future will determine the fate of these people," he said.
Stressing the role of family members, relatives of missing people in implementing the project, he said that family members of missing people answered the related questions in details.
"Family members and close relatives of missing people paid attention to this project. It was hard but they answered our questions. The materials will determine what happened to their relatives, " he said.
This project, which is the second one, was first implemented in the former Yugoslavia.
The people missing and dead in the territory of this country were identified in the course of the project.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, about 4,000 Azerbaijani citizens missed as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
