Forgotten June 29. Why has the government increased the number of missing persons?

June 29 was once celebrated in RA as the Day of the Missing Freedom Fighter.

1992 on this very day, June 29, the fighters of the “Arabo”, “Artsiv 13”, “Zeytun”, “Jraberd”, “Armavir” detachments participating in the combat operations of Leninavan, Haykajur (Hasan-Ghaya) villages of the Martakert region of the NKR remained under siege, and the fate of 79 freedom fighters is still unknown.

Every year on this day, high-ranking former authorities, in particular, the military leadership, led by the Minister of Defense, visited the Yrablur military pantheon, paid their respects and laid flowers at the monument erected in memory of the missing freedom fighters.

There were years when that day was also marked with a memorial service. Moreover, active search work was carried out at that time, they even started taking DNA samples from the relatives of the missing persons, the RA Ministries of Defense and Health, the Armenian office of the International Committee of the Red Cross participated in the process.

After the change of power in 2018, in fact, June 29 was not emphasized, perhaps the families of those who disappeared in the first war were left out of attention.

But the most tragic is the war of September 2020.

In one of our analyzes in May this year we have touched on to the numerical differences in the number of persons missing or having a similar status in the 2020 44-day war. In particular, in November 2025 NA Speaker Alen Simonyan had announced. “Unknown 191 the person’s location, including: 172 serviceman and 19 of a civilian”.

And in May of this year, the same Alen Simonyan noted՝ «The number of missing persons is approximately 160.”

In turn, in March of this year, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Srbuhi Galyan answered the question of Garnik Danielyan, deputy of the Armenia faction in the National Assembly: reported.

“According to official data, we have 195 missing persons, 175 of whom are servicemen, and the rest are civilians.” 

Moreover, Nikol Pashinyan during the campaign during a dispute with obstetrician-gynecologist Arpine Soghoyan stated: “197 people are missing.” It should be noted that Soghoyan is the sister of Hrant Papikyan, the lieutenant colonel of the Military Medical Service who went missing in the 44-day war.

Agree that “over 190” and “about 160” create a different digital image:

As for the number of missing persons in the First War, according to the recorded data, it is about 800. Nikol Pashinyan in 2022 had announced.

“We also talked about the fate of those who went missing in the first war and the fate of those who went missing in the 44-day war. Azerbaijan constantly talks about what they have around after the first Karabakh war 4000 missing I want to emphasize that, however, the Armenian side also has missing people, according to official figures 777 We have a missing person. An attempt is made to present that the Armenian side has not taken concrete steps in this matter either. I want to inform that during the last 1 year, the Azerbaijani side has been transferred to the side, which is considered missing from the first war 108 human body. We are preparing more in the coming days 2 transfer body”.

It is interesting, isn’t it, that Pashinyan does not record any such facts regarding the missing persons or persons considered missing from the Armenian side.

And during his rule, the Armenian side has missing or missing people not only from the time of the 44-day war, but also as a result of the complete depopulation of Artsakh in 2023. Only as a result of the explosion of the Stepanakert fuel warehouse, about 2 dozen people are missing.

Accordingly, the occasion mentioned above and similar occasions are a good opportunity to raise these issues publicly, to remind about them, as the Azerbaijani side does, which does not even wait for special occasions.

Hikmet Hajiyev, a constructive partner of the current authorities of RA, Ilham Aliyev’s assistant, always remembers their missing persons from the time of the first Artsakh war.

Last: the case it was about two weeks ago.

In particular, he noted:

“As a result of the ongoing search, excavation and remains identification procedures, it was exhumed 889 human remains, identified through DNA analysis and forensics 313 missing, huh? 226 “person” was also handed over to the families for a dignified burial.”

Hajiyev also added: “in the “liberated” territories of Azerbaijan 32 a mass grave was discovered.”

In this context, it is worth reminding that on February 7, 2025, a meeting of the interdepartmental commission dealing with the issues of prisoners, hostages and missing (whereabouts unknown) persons of the Republic of Armenia and the state commission for issues of prisoners of war, hostages and missing citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan took place on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. the meeting:

During the meeting, the parties exchanged opinions on the issues of clarifying the fate of the missing persons and agreed that the discussions between the commissions will continue by mutual consent.

Next such meeting had taken place In early June 2025. And the parties referred to the meeting of the representatives of the commissions dealing with the issues of missing persons of Armenia and Azerbaijan humanitarian issues related to clarifying the fate of missing persons during the conflict, the possibilities of information exchange, as well as the organization and coordination of search operations were considered.

The parties also stressed the importance of continued dialogue in the humanitarian field and reaffirmed their willingness to continue contacts for the benefit of the families of the missing persons.

Later, in a conversation with journalists, Armen Abazyan, director of the National Security Service at that time, said: “We have a preliminary agreement that we will jointly carry out search operations.” 

Days after this On June 18, 2025, Pashinyan decided Armen Abazyan was dismissed from the position of the director of the RA National Security Service, and he was replaced by Andranik Simonyan, who went to Baku in September of this year and was there September 19-21.

We cannot say to what extent Armen Abazyan’s agreements with Azerbaijan regarding missing persons, including joint search operations, are being implemented. But it is a fact that after that, Azerbaijan again announced the location of the relics and remains of persons considered missing during the first war. Something that we have not heard from the Armenian side. Maybe something is being done, we don’t know, we’ll just be happy.

By the way, in the 44-day war, Baku has 6 missing persons.

Returning to the first war, to the volunteer squads of that time, we should add that during the “trial” of Baku, as we wrote reference was made to the Armenian volunteer squads: “Arabo”, “Tigran the Great”, “David of Sassoon”.

Moreover, Azerbaijani minval.az about the “Arabo” detachment and its commander article: published with the caption: “Bloody” commander is roaming freely in Armenia, Yerevan should hand him over to Baku.

Is this the reason why the RA authorities do not remember June 29 and its background?

And on June 27-28, 1993, one year after the fighters of the “Arabo”, “Artsiv 13”, “Zeytun”, “Jraberd”, “Armavir” squads participating in the combat operations of the villages of the Martakert region of Artsakh were encircled and disappeared, on June 27-28, 1993, the city of Martakert and not only was liberated.

During the “trial” of Baku, not a single liberation operation of the first war was neglected. And Davit Ishkhanyan, who was held in Baku during one of the sessions stated that “participated in the operation to take the upper part of Martakert”.

General Davit Manukyan as well had transferred The Azerbaijani propaganda machine, in another session, announced that “participated in combat operations and was wounded on February 28, 1993 in the direction of Martakert”.

Before the depopulation of Artsakh Martakert had heroic positions, gave heroes there. During the 44-day war of 2020, the Armenian army managed to keep Martakert, the positions. They were heroically kept even after the 44-day war, when a difficult situation arose around the positions, when after the end of the war, Nor Maragha, Nor Aygestan, Nor Seysula, Nor Karmiravan, Nor Haykajur, Hovtashen and Nor Jraberd settlements of the Martakert region came under the control of Azerbaijan. At that time, the leadership of Artsakh conditioned this with the fact of handing over Aghdam region with the November 9 document.

“Since this area was part of the Aghdam region during the Soviet years, it seems that these villages are in the logic of demarcation.” Artak Beglaryan, the former human rights defender of Artsakh, explained.

This once again confirms that during the 44-day war we lost less territory during the actual military operations than outside of it.

P.S. When the article was already ready, from the Azerbaijani press let us know that the representatives of non-governmental organizations of Azerbaijan, the relatives of “Khojalu Genocide victims”, the relatives of victims and those who died from explosions of “Armenian mines” published an open letter that international initiatives should not create an image of Ruben Vardanyan as a victim. At the same time, they raised the issue of missing persons from the time of the first war in Azerbaijan. In other words, the RA authorities should have raised such a question today.

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