Relatives of the deceased Karabakh residents demand their reburial in Armenia.

The families of 66 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh who died in September 2023 are demanding that the Armenian government ensure the exhumation and reburial of their remains. The authorities have not responded to a petition with this demand for over a month.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in October 2023, shortly after the mass exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh, refugees appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance in the removal and reburial of the remains of their relatives. In November 2024, it became known that human rights activists were negotiating for the reburial of those killed in the fighting in September 2023.

Families of Nagorno-Karabakh residents killed shortly before the mass exodus of Armenians from the region held a protest in Yerevan in August demanding the reburial of their loved ones. The petitioners are still awaiting a response, hoping for a positive one. Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan recalled that on August 21, at a protest outside the government, relatives of the victims once again voiced their demands and sent letters to the authorities.

"People assume that the Armenian authorities are doing nothing regarding the exhumation of missing persons and the return of prisoners. They want to know what the state is doing specifically on these issues, what progress has been made. And if nothing is done, people hope that work will resume, as it did in the first months after the deportation of the people of Artsakh. But to this day, there has been no response to the letters of demand," Stepanyan told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to former Nagorno-Karabakh President Samvel Shahramanyan, "relatives of 66 people killed in the September 2023 war" continue to demand reburial. Shakhramanyan confirmed that this issue had previously been discussed with the assistance of human rights activists "both with the Armenian authorities and with representatives of Azerbaijan." Certain agreements were reached, but they failed to be implemented, and there has been no further progress since.

"We are talking about those killed as a result of the latest aggression, buried both in the fraternal cemetery in Stepanakert and in the regions of Artsakh (the self-name of Nagorno-Karabakh)," Shakhramanyan said at a briefing with journalists at the Yerablur military pantheon in Yerevan.

An agreement to transfer the remains of victims of the September 2023 war, who "didn't even have time to properly bury," was reached with Azerbaijan more than a year ago, noted Nagorno-Karabakh parliament member Metaxa Hakobyan.

"Many promises were made, an agreement was reached with Azerbaijan to allow exhumation, but at the last minute, the Azerbaijani side cancelled all agreements. The relatives of the victims continue to voice their demands, but to no avail," the deputy told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Boris Arzumanyan's son died during the 2023 war, and immediately after his funeral, the population of their community was forced to flee their homes. The man says he is "ready to return to his homeland under international guarantees, but until that happens, he desires only one thing – to embrace his son's grave."

Bella Galstyan's two brothers died in September 2023. "Not only the relatives of the dead, but also the families of those missing and captured, demand that the authorities of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the international community hear our demands and return our loved ones to us. There should be no politics here. We are raising humanitarian issues; we want human understanding and not to ignore our demands," the woman said. Karine Baghasaryan, the wife of a missing person, is convinced that "no one wants to seriously address the issues of prisoners and missing persons, as well as the issue of reburial." Our protests and demands are clear: the relatives of those killed in the 2023 war in Artsakh are demanding the exhumation and transfer of the remains of their sons to Armenia; the relatives of those killed in all Karabakh wars are concerned that the Azerbaijanis are desecrating their graves; the relatives of the missing demand that the search for them not be stopped. Don't we have the right to know whether anything is being done about these demands?" - she says.

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