Azerbaijan honours two fallen heroes of First Garabagh War

Azerbaijan will lay to rest two more of its sons who went missing during the First Garabagh War.

As the bloodiest chapter in Azerbaijani history, the First Garabagh War claimed over 15,000 Azerbaijani lives, of whom 4,354 went missing. Despite Azerbaijan’s continuous efforts, the Armenian side refuses to cooperate in this matter.

To make matters worse, trampling on all moral values, the Armenian side manipulates the issue to jangle the nerves of Azerbaijanis, especially the families of the missing. On multiple occasions, letters written in Azerbaijani using the Cyrillic alphabet were found in fruit crates sent from Armenia to Russian agricultural markets, where individuals from various former Soviet republics work together. The letters spoke about prisoners of war allegedly working on plantations in Armenia. It is anyone’s guess whether the letters speak the truth or not, but they give hope to the families of the missing while also irritating the wider population.

Unfortunately, countries and international organizations worldwide remain mum in this regard. To give credit where it's due, these organizations initially played a significant role in gaining information about those who went missing. More precisely, international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and others acted as intermediaries in correspondences between some of the missing and their family members. These organizations facilitated the delivery of letters from the missing individuals to their families in Azerbaijan, but later, those individuals vanished. Regrettably, over time, these organizations changed their stance and failed to follow up on the issue.

Against all odds, Azerbaijan continues its efforts to search for the missing. These efforts have gained momentum since the 44-day War. Following the war, several mass graves were unearthed in territories that had been under Armenian occupation for over 30 years. It is expected that the number of mass graves will increase.

With the discovery of mass graves, the remains of fallen Azerbaijani citizens are being identified through DNA tests. A few months ago, the remains of three Azerbaijanis were laid to rest. On March 18, the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons stated that the remains of two more martyrs, who were considered missing, were found and they would be committed to the earth after two days.

The Commission noted that both of the missing martyrs were military personnel. One of them is Dashgin Nasraddin oglu Behbudov. He was born in 1970 and drafted into military service by the Goychay Military Commissariat, on February 1, 1993. In January 1994, he went missing in the Shukurbeyli area of the Fuzuli district. Based on a 2007 ruling by the Goychay District Court, he was officially granted the status of a martyr.

The other is Atakishi Gahraman oglu Atayev, born in 1960, who went in 1992 in the village of Nakhchivanli, Khojaly district.