Doubts Arise That Azerbaijan Has Buried Some of Our Casualties, Artak Beglaryan Says

Artsakh will definitely have a defensive institution. The question is whether it will be called an army, defense forces, or defensive troops, but functionally, Artsakh will have an army. This was stated by Artak Beglaryan, the head of the Artsakh President's Office, in an interview with Hetq, mentioning that the army will ensure the safety of the Artsakh people alongside the security guarantees of Russian peacekeepers.

“Of course, Azerbaijan would like very much that there were no armed individuals in Artsakh; I think it would also like the Russian peacekeepers to be absent. Azerbaijan's wishes in this regard have no significance,” declared Beglaryan.

The issues of missing persons and prisoners of war are among the most painful in post-war Armenia and Artsakh. After the remains of casualties are discovered, it still takes a long time for identification. It is apparent for the head of the Artsakh President's Office that there have been significant problems in the field of identification. The transfer of data during the gathering of bodies, moving to the morgue, and transferring from one morgue to another has been prolonged. However, the biggest problem has been and remains the conducting of DNA studies and the analysis of data. In January, the installation of a second DNA device slightly accelerated the process, which could have been accomplished sooner. Hundreds of bodies are still unidentified.

There are suspicions in Artsakh that some of the fallen have been buried by the Azerbaijani side during or after the hostilities. In specific cases, mass graves have been opened, but there is still work to be done in this direction. Azerbaijan is deliberately prolonging the process of returning the remains of the fallen and prisoners. The most painful issue is the return of prisoners. Azerbaijan is concealing information about the prisoners. Artak Beglaryan finds it difficult to provide an exact number of prisoners, but notes that aside from the 59 individuals from Khshdaberd, there are dozens of other cases involving civilians and military captives.