Netherlands to help investigate missing people in Armenia and Azerbaijan

The Kingdom of the Netherlands will provide financial assistance to investigate the fate of people who went missing as a result of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, locate burial sites and identify human remains found there.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports, citing Sputnik Armenia, that Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen made the announcement at a joint news conference with his Armenian counterpart in Yerevan.

The Dutch foreign minister said the new funding would be channelled through the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). The package is intended to help address humanitarian issues in the post-conflict period, speed up excavations at mass graves and support identification through DNA testing.

Berendsen said that, in addition to financial assistance, other forms of support, such as expertise and technical assistance, had not been ruled out if needed.

The Dutch minister, who travelled to the region and held official meetings in Baku before visiting Yerevan, said the Netherlands welcomed steps towards establishing lasting peace and stability in the South Caucasus. He said he hoped a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia would be signed soon.

According to official Armenian statistics, as of March 3, 2026, 195 people in the country — 175 military personnel and 20 civilians — were considered missing.

Azerbaijan has also consistently raised internationally that nearly 4,000 Azerbaijanis went missing as a result of the First and Second Garabagh wars. It has said that clarifying their fate and Armenia’s provision of accurate maps of mass graves are among the most important humanitarian conditions for lasting peace.