Another Mass Grave of Azerbaijanis Killed by Armenians Found in Karabakh Region

A mass grave of Azerbaijanis killed by Armenian forces in the First Karabakh War was unearthed on Tuesday in the Khojavand district of Azerbaijan.

Director of the Association of Forensic Medical Examination and Pathological Anatomy of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health, Adalat Hasanov said that to date, the remains of 25 people have been found in the grave located in Khojavand's village of Edilli.

“The remains will be exhumed and numbered, and their gender, age, height, and cause of death will be established,” Hasanov said, according to Caliber.Az.

“Then, after a genetic examination, genetic profiles will be extracted and genetic samples will be taken from 3 relatives of the missing to establish their identity,” he added.

The association’s executive Nurana Huseynova told local media that the remains found in the grave belong to Azerbaijani servicemen.

“Clothes and black leather shoes were found. In addition, identity documents, two knives, cigarette butts, bullets, cartridges, and shell casings were unearthed. Belts were also found, on the plaque of which a star, a sickle, and a hammer were engraved,” she said, adding that more accurate examinations will be conducted at the forensic laboratories of the Military Prosecutor's Office.

The initial on-ground study of the skeletons revealed that the hands and feet of the servicemen were tied before the murder. 

The mass grave has become the second of its kind found in Edilli. The first was discovered in February and was confirmed to contain the remains of around 15-20 Azerbaijanis.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had been locked in a decades-old armed conflict over the latter’s Karabakh (Garabagh) region. Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched full-blown military aggression against Azerbaijan, marking the longest and deadliest war in the South Caucasus region. The bloody war ended with a ceasefire in 1994, which saw Armenia forcibly occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 3,890 went missing, and one million others were expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing policy conducted by Armenia.

On September 27, 2020, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict took a violent turn when Armenia’s forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the counter-attack operations that lasted 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from nearly 30-year-long illegal Armenian occupation. The war ended with the signing of a tripartite statement by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia on November 10, 2020. Under the agreement, Armenia also returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

According to data compiled by the Azerbaijani government, 3,890 Azerbaijani citizens, including 71 children, 267 women, and 326 older adults, went missing during the First Karabakh War between 1991 and 1994. Baku demands assistance from Armenia in investigating the fate of these people, but this request remains unfulfilled.

Post-war searches in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan unearthed the remains of 12 civilians in the Kalbajar district, where the Armenian armed forces committed the Bashlibel mass murder in 1993. In addition, mass graves of the Azerbaijanis were found in the Dashalti village near Shusha city, and the Farrukh height in the Khojaly district.

According to data released by the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages, and Missing Persons, 46 Azerbaijani servicemen went missing in the Pirlar village of the Khojaly district in the 1990s. At the same time, 11 Azerbaijani servicemen went missing in the Aliaghali village of the Aghdam district. The commission is convinced that these areas could be home to the remains of Azerbaijani servicemen who went missing during the First Karabakh War.

Experts in Baku believe that the mass graves of Azerbaijanis killed by Armenian forces could be found in more locations in the Karabakh region, including in the Khojavand, Khankendi, Khojaly, Fuzuli, Shusha, and Aghdam districts.