KHANKENDI, Azerbaijan, May 1. The fate of
nearly 4,000 Azerbaijani citizens is still unknown, Hikmet Hajiyev,
Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign
Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, told
reporters during the visit of representatives of the diplomatic
corps accredited in Azerbaijan to Khankendi, Trend reports.


"We can never forget the memories of the past, the bitter
memories, the bloody memories. One of the bitter experiences and
consequences of the occupation period is the issue of missing
persons. To this day, there is still no information about the fate
of about 4,000 of our citizens. Most of them are civilians, who
were captured and held hostage during the military aggression of
Armenia against Azerbaijan during the occupation, and there is no
information about their further fate," he explained.


He noted that for 30 years, the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC), which has created special opportunities for its
activities in the territory of Azerbaijan, as well as in the
liberated territories, and whose mandate is based on humanitarian
issues, has collected a lot of information on this.


"However, it hasn't completed its work to the end, the mandate
entrusted to them hasn't been fully fulfilled. Thus, we have not
been able to receive any information about the fate of up to 4,000
of our people and the actions committed against them. Therefore,
this issue remains open to this day, and we have also appealed to
the Armenian side through various channels.


"Even when representatives of Armenian civil society were here
last time, we appealed to them to provide information to the
Azerbaijani side based on the testimonies of witnesses of various
cases and their information because families are still waiting for
information about their children, mothers about their sons and
daughters, but we haven't been able to provide this information
yet," the official said.


Hajiyev emphasized that as a result of the conditions created by
President Ilham Aliyev and the searches conducted by the relevant
state commission in accordance with his instructions, the remains
of a number of our citizens were found, and as a result of their
DNA analysis and a very complex analysis process, their identities
were determined and their families were informed.


"But we still have a big job ahead of us. According to
international humanitarian law, this work was to be carried out by
the ICRC, as the mandate holder, within 30 years, but it hasn't
been carried out by the committee. At the very least, we didn't
consider the work it did satisfactory, and both our people and
citizens had legitimate expectations in this regard," he added.


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