Families of people missing from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh wars asked European institutions to help obtain records and locate possible burial sites, as official Azerbaijani figures put the unresolved count at 3,682.
Azerbaijan’s State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons reported 4,010 registrations linked to the First and Second Karabakh Wars by Aug. 31. Of those, 4,004 concerned the first war and six the second; 3,682 people remained listed as missing. The commission’s figures track registrations and outstanding cases, while a separate statement from Azerbaijan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations described recovery, identification and family handovers.
Members of the Garabagh Missing Families Public Union held gatherings in two parts of Brussels: at Place du Luxembourg, near the European Parliament, on Oct. 20, and at Schuman Square on Oct. 21, Report.az and AZERTAC reported. Euronews said participants wanted European institutions to press Armenia for archive information and details on possible mass-grave locations.
Farida Jabbarova, whose husband is missing, told Euronews, “for 34 years we know nothing about him.”
In an Oct. 20 statement, Azerbaijan’s Permanent Mission reported that authorities had found the remains of 913 people, identified 328 through DNA testing and forensic methods, and returned 273 sets of remains to families. The mission also reported 32 mass graves containing remains of 253 people.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said in October 2024 that it had previously sent remains and related information to Azerbaijan and was willing to cooperate on missing-person cases. The ministry also said Armenia had reported about 1,008 missing people since the 1990s.
The text of an Armenia-Azerbaijan agreement initialed in 2025 says the parties would exchange available information and work to locate and return remains, leaving detailed procedures to a separate agreement. The International Commission on Missing Persons outlined a 2026 plan to help both countries develop a cooperation agreement, share active-case information and coordinate recovery work. It gives no completion date.
