While the issue of the possibility of dissolving the OSCE Minsk Group, which is engaged in the settlement of the Artsakh issue, has come up for discussion, the humanitarian problems of the people of Artsakh remain unresolved. If Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan puts the issue of the Azerbaijani President dissolving the Minsk Group on the agenda, Baku leaves unresponsive the views expressed by Yerevan that it is necessary to engage in the search for the missing or to transfer those buried in Artsakh to Armenia.
The relatives of the victims live in the hope that one day this will become a reality. “Who needs such a life, when you are not able to put a flower on the grave of your child?” says Nadezhda Arzumanyan, the mother of Vachagan Dadalyan, who is buried in the Martuni cemetery.
Vachagan was killed at the age of 25 during the war on September 19, 2023, when the Azerbaijani army attacked the blockaded Artsakh. Vachagan, his mother’s only son was the commander of an anti-aircraft missile battery platoon. Mrs. Nadezhda had also lost her husband and daughter earlier. “Today, the graves of our orphaned children remain there, we didn’t even have time to put tombstones,” says the mother.
The Azerbaijani attack killed 223 people, including 20 civilians, six of whom were minors. Due to various problems, it was not possible to transfer the bodies of those killed to Armenia. The reasons are different: some buried their sons before the news of their forced displacement from Artsakh spread.
“Those were cruel days, cruel!” says Yervand Danielyan, sitting next to pictures of his son and son-in-law. His son, Eduard, and son-in-law, Grisha, were killed during the war of September 19. Eduard served in Yegnikner, Grisha in Omar.
“Eduard loved the service, he was a sniper, after completing the service, he decided to go into contract service,” the father recalls to Forrights.am how devotedly his son had joined the army.
Eduard was killed while trying to help his friend in another position. “The communication was lost in the positions. Eduard went to the next position to get information from his friends, but the UAV noticed him and shot him down.”
The father could not make a decision on how to bury his son for a long time, because they did not say clearly whether they would leave the village or not. Due to the delay, Yervand Dainelyan decided to bury his son.
“I decided to take him to the cemetery of our village, to bury him next to my grandfather, next to his grandfather. The next day I learned that we had to leave the village. I got in the village head’s car to say goodbye to Edo. Next to his grave, I said, ‘Edo, I’m sorry I’m leaving, I can’t take you. They tricked me, they tricked me… I’m saying goodbye and leaving’,” the father says, unable to come to terms with the reality.
Yervand Danielyan is ready to go to Artsakh to bring his son’s body, but there is no way. The relatives of the victims tell us that there were talks that they would go to Artsakh with special teams from Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as with the Red Cross, to retrieve the remains, but, according to them, the process failed at the last moment: they say the Azerbaijani side refused. Many have been buried and do not have tombstones. Relatives say that they have drawn the location and made signs so that if possible, when they set foot in Artsakh, they can easily find their sons’ graves.
Valerik Aghamalyan, the father of the deceased Samvel Aghamalyan, says that before appealing to the Armenian government, they had discussions on this issue with the Artsakh representation and the International Red Cross, but they did not achieve any results. “They even demanded that people of age go to remove [the bodies], I agreed, but there is no news from them,” he says and notes that Nikol Pashinyan did not receive them.
Let us recall that the people of Artsakh want the opportunity to cry and lay flowers at the graves of their relatives. They gathered near the RA government building on July 11 and expected a meeting with Nikol Pashinyan to ask him to transfer the bodies of the victims of the September 19, 2023 war to Armenia. However, the prime minister did not receive them.
Human rights activist Siranush Sahakyan filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of 36 families of the September 2023 victims last month. “Our demand is to record violations and force Azerbaijan to return the remains and relics to the families.”
Narek Kirakosyan