BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 18. The contamination of our territories with mines by Armenia creates serious obstacles to carrying out exhumation work, said President Ilham Aliyev in his letter to the participants of the international conference on “Increasing national and global efforts to clarify the fate of missing persons” in Baku, Trend reports.

"The liberation of Azerbaijani lands from occupation in 2020 ushered new opportunities for clarifying the fate of the persons who went missing in the First Karabakh war. However, the contamination of our territories with mines and unexploded military ordnance by Armenia creates serious obstacles to the process of identifying mass graves and carrying out exhumation work.

Immediately after the Patriotic War, important steps were taken to strengthen the capacity of the State Commission, determine the places of mass graves in the territories freed from occupation, and necessary excavation and exhumation work was started. In the last two years, 10 mass graves were discovered as a result of excavations in the liberated territories. As a result of the urgent measures taken, it has been possible to identify 15 missing persons, and the public was informed about it.

In the post-conflict period, the issue of missing persons has been highlighted by us in all relevant meetings and negotiations with Armenia, especially in the Brussels and Washington platforms. Unfortunately, Armenia flagrantly violates its obligations under international humanitarian law and does not provide Azerbaijan with information about the missing persons and the exact location of mass graves. The reasons for this are obvious. Armenia believes that this will expose its further war crimes and atrocities. The international community should put pressure on Armenia to submit information on the fate of missing persons and the location of mass graves to the Azerbaijani side. This is a purely humanitarian issue and its politicization is unacceptable," President Ilham Aliyev underlined.