Azerbaijan handed over the bodies of 173 soldiers killed in Karabakh on September 19-20, 2023, to Armenia, says the Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons.
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Furthermore, the commission reports that following the Second Karabakh War, 1713 bodies were transferred to Armenia and after the conflict on September 12-14, 2022, a total of 157 bodies were handed over.
According to information from the State Commission, as of 2024, 3890 Azerbaijani citizens are considered missing from the First Karabakh War, with only 25 remaining identified to date.
“The State Commission deems it essential to engage field commanders who led military operations in Armenia until 1994 and other authorized individuals with sufficient information about the location of mass graves in the search for missing Azerbaijani citizens’ graves. The State Commission reaffirms its readiness to collaborate with relevant structures of the Republic of Armenia in the search for missing persons from both sides,” as stated in the published statement.
The territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan has persisted since the late 1980s. In 1991, the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, declared the establishment of the “Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh” with Armenia's support. However, no country, including Armenia, recognized this “Republic”. From 1988 to 1994, during the armed conflict, 30,000 people lost their lives in the region. Nagorno-Karabakh and several surrounding areas remained under the de facto control of the Armenian Armed Forces. Tensions escalated into hostilities in the fall of 2020, culminating in a six-week war that claimed over 6,500 lives on both sides and ended with a Russian-brokered accord. Consequently, Azerbaijan gained control over a significant portion of Nagorno-Karabakh and its surrounding territories. On September 13-14, 2022, during Azerbaijan's invasion of Armenian territory, approximately 300 soldiers (about 200 Armenians and 80 Azerbaijanis) were killed. Both parties accused each other of initiating the clash. Azerbaijan initiated a blockade of Karabakh towards the end of 2022, followed by an "anti-terrorist operation" on September 19, 2023, leading to the capitulation of the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic”. Azerbaijan proclaimed the restoration of its territorial integrity, resulting in tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians leaving Karabakh and relocating to Armenia.
