OMM Newsroom
Families of Azerbaijanis who have been missing since the Garabagh conflict appealed to European Union officials in Brussels, seeking greater international support to determine the fate of their relatives and locate mass graves, AnewZ reported.
On October 21, the European External Action Service met members of the Garabagh Missing Families Public Union. Relatives of the missing Azerbaijanis met Okke Bouwman, political adviser to the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, and Marco Cardinali, coordinator for relations with Azerbaijan.
At the meeting, the families said Armenia had still not provided information about the fate of their missing relatives, including concerning the post-conflict period.
Konul Behbudova, chairwoman of the Garabagh Missing Families Public Union, said families of missing Azerbaijanis held a protest on October 20 at Place du Luxembourg, in front of the European Parliament, and adopted a statement outlining their demands.
Behbudova said Armenia was responsible for clarifying the fate of the missing Azerbaijanis and should provide information about possible burial sites and the locations of mass graves. She added that 32 mass graves had so far been found in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories, and that these discoveries represented only a small part of a wider humanitarian tragedy.
The families are seeking answers about the fate of more than 4,000 Azerbaijanis who have been missing since the First Garabagh War. They called on European institutions to provide greater support for efforts to determine what happened to their relatives.
The families’ campaign in Brussels continued on October 21 with a protest at Place Schuman, near the area where the EU’s main institutions are based. They said they hoped the ongoing peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan would also help clarify the fate of people who have been missing for decades.
