88 DNA Identifications, but Unburied Bodies and Remains of Soldiers Found in Different Morgues Four Years Later

The newspaper 'Jhoghovurd' reports that today marks the fourth anniversary of the 44-day war, and four years after the conflict, 88 DNA identifications have been made, yet the bodies and remains of soldiers remain unburied in various morgues. This information was officially communicated to the 'Jhoghovurd' newspaper by the Ministry of Health of Armenia.

Four years after the war, parents of the deceased refuse to accept the results of DNA tests. The main reason for this is that the parents do not trust the work of the competent authorities, believing that the data obtained through DNA identification is far from reality. Throughout 2023, the Chair of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs, Taguhi Tovmasyan, has held regular meetings with the relatives of the missing and publicly stated: 'We are dealing with such realities that the authorities have provided people with, for instance, three hands, saying that all three belong to your son—take it, bury it. One parent has a son who is 1.82 meters tall and wears size 43 shoes, but actually, the parent is given DNA identification data for someone much shorter, only 1.60 meters tall, and told to adjust to the situation—this is your child. In other words, in the field of identification, we encounter events that are simply expressions of surrealism.'

One of the reasons parents do not trust the DNA test results is that there has been a clear discrepancy between the physical data of the soldier and the body identified by the state. Additionally, there have been instances where parents, through their own investigations, have discovered that their son was captured, yet their name is not included in the list of the captives. 'There are parents who have conducted extensive investigative work, analyzing various footage, and can be said to have gathered more evidence than the investigators themselves regarding the whereabouts and, in general, the circumstances of their sons' deaths or survival, as well as the circumstances surrounding their captivity. When these data are compared and summarized, it turns out that their children should at least be on the list of unconfirmed captives, yet, in fact, these captives are not confirmed in any way,' said the Chair of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs. Much has not changed four years on.