Baku urges Yerevan to reveal information on missing Azerbaijanis
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
An agreement on the persons gone missing in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone should be implemented, the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the OSCE called at the meeting of the Permanent Council.
The delegation called on the Permanent Council to act on the realization of an agreement on exchanging data on missing persons in the conflict zone reached at the Paris meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents last November.
"The issue of missing persons still remains one of the most serious humanitarian consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that affect the lives of thousands of persons. Many are still waiting for clarifying information on the whereabouts of their relatives," read the statement by the mission.
The fate of roughly 4,500 is yet to be known, a report from the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons states.
Baku supports firmly the earliest implementation of the agreement aside from undue politicization and believes that it bears "a paramount importance in view of manifesting a durable peaceful solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict".
Back in Paris last year, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan both agreed on a series of issues: hostages exchange and missing persons information, all under France's impetus.
Through numerous round table talks Azerbaijan's Delegation to the OSCE sought the OSCE Minsk Group's involvement in the process of setting possible practical steps for implementing this agreement.
During these meetings the co-chairs voiced Armenia's readiness for cooperation on exchanging data on missing persons under the International Committee of Red Cross.
Going on these results, Baku is now calling on Yerevan to animate its mentioned readiness to constructively engage in defining the modalities of exchanging information on the missing persons along with the ICRC and with the OSCE MG co-chairs' support.
"We strongly believe that the OSCE has a special role to play in this regard. Thus, we reiterate our call on the co-chairmen and the members of the OSCE Minsk Group to exercise more support for facilitating the implementation of the Armenian-Azerbaijan agreement on missing persons," the statement read.
"Moreover, in this view, we encourage the Serbian Chairmanship of the OSCE to arrange consultations involving the parties to the conflict and representatives of the ICRC with the support of the OSCE Minsk Group mediation," the statement concluded.
The efforts attempting to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could have a boost if the agreement on the exchange of information on missing persons is implemented, believe Baku and the Minsk Group.
To this end, the American Co-Chair of the Minsk Group, James Warlick said earlier that commitments taken by Armenia and Azerbaijan at the Paris Summit should act as a tool to boost all efforts towards settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Warlick believes that chances for achieving a progress towards the conflict's settlement depend on these efforts.
Armenia's invasion into Azerbaijani lands that started in early 1990s and is going on up to date resulted in the deaths of more than 20,000 Azerbaijanis. Additionally 50,000 people were injured and over one million were displaced.
The total cost of the damages inflicted by Armenia's aggressive policy against Azerbaijan stands at $300 billion, according to the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.
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