Afət Ziyadqızı
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has responded in parliament to calls by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the head of the State Security Service (SSS) for Yerevan to help determine the fate of Azerbaijanis who went missing during the First and Second Garabagh wars.
The Operative Information Center-OMM reports that, answering a question from lawmaker Sona Ghazaryan during a parliamentary “government hour,” Mirzoyan said he did not consider Baku’s requests a “new demand,” as claimed by radical revanchist media outlets.
The minister acknowledged that clarifying the fate of people who went missing as a result of the conflict is an important humanitarian issue for both sides.
Mirzoyan said locating missing people and resolving the issue remain under the direct attention of the leadership of both countries. The matter is regularly discussed at bilateral meetings between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as well as at meetings between the foreign ministers.
More than 4,000 Azerbaijanis have been considered missing since the First Garabagh War, and Azerbaijan has repeatedly called on Armenia to provide precise maps and information on mass grave sites. Armenia has also put forward a legislative initiative to establish a unified register of people who went missing during military operations, following a proposal by its National Security Service.
