Armenia, Azerbaijan discuss stepping up search for war missing

BAKU, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Armenian Prime ‌Minister Nikol Pashinyan ​said on ​Thursday he had discussed with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stepping up efforts to find people missing from decades of conflict, as a conference in Baku ‌ended with Azerbaijan detailing its exchanges of information with Yerevan.

Pashinyan said the ⁠two leaders had discussed intensifying cooperation between their countries’ commissions dealing with missing persons, without specifying when the ‌discussion took place.

“This issue can ‌be resolved through cooperation,” Pashinyan told reporters, adding that Armenia was ready to work with Azerbaijan to establish the fate of those missing.

The comments came on the final day ​of a conference in Baku, where Azerbaijan said the two countries’ commissions had been in direct contact since February 2025 and were exchanging information about missing people.

Ali Nagiyev, ⁠head of Azerbaijan's State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, said Armenia had provided DNA profiles of ​50 missing ethnic Armenians in January, but none matched human remains recovered by Azerbaijani authorities.

He said Azerbaijan had given Armenia a list of ​834 of its citizens it believes were taken ‌prisoner or hostage during the first Karabakh war in the 1990s, including detailed information on 104 of them.

The fate of missing persons is ⁠among the humanitarian issues covered by a US-brokered peace agreement initialled by the two countries in Washington in August 2025.

Article 9 of the agreement commits both sides to exchanging available information, searching for and ⁠returning remains and investigating disappearances as part of efforts to build confidence and reconciliation.

Aliyev in a message ​to the conference said resolving the fate of missing persons was essential to building trust and achieving lasting peace.

Pashinyan called on Armenia to provide information about missing Azerbaijanis and possible burial sites, as well ‌as access to relevant archives.

Azerbaijan says 4,010 of its citizens remain missing from the conflicts, including 782 civilians.

The two South Caucasus neighbours ‌fought two major wars over Karabakh, a region internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan that Baku regained ⁠full control of in 2023, prompting ‌the flight of more than ​100,000 ethnic Armenians.

Although the two countries initialled a peace agreement last year, it has yet to be formally signed.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Editing by ‌Bill Berkrot)

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