Forensic teams have discovered remains believed to belong to 16 people in Karabakh, an Azerbaijani official said Oct. 8, as searches continue for people missing from the First Karabakh War.
Akif Guliyev, head of the Forensic Archaeology Department at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Sciences, said the remains were recovered during an expedition that ended about three days earlier. He spoke at a panel during the fourth International Conference of the Baku Dialogue on Missing Persons.
Guliyev said remains belonging to nearly 1,000 people have been found during searches in the territories returned to Azerbaijani control. The work is complicated by mountainous terrain in Kalbajar, Aghdara and Lachin, where fragments can be scattered across wide areas, according to a Vesti Baku report.
Forensic Examination and DNA Identification
Adalat Hasanov, director of the Association of Forensic Medical Examination and Pathological Anatomy at Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry, said the institution has received remains believed to belong to 913 missing people.
He said forensic specialists found ante-mortem injuries on the skeletal remains of 474 identified people, including gunshot wounds, shrapnel injuries and trauma caused by blunt objects. The circumstances of each death require separate investigation and forensic assessment.
After medical examination, specialists collect biological material, particularly from intact teeth, and send it to the State Security Service’s Genetic Research Center for identification.
Molecular genetic testing has established the identities of 328 people who went missing during the First Karabakh War, Hasanov said. The remains of 273 have been returned to relatives for burial, including 225 military personnel and 48 civilians. Among the identified civilians were 15 women and two children.
The latest recovery is only the first stage of a longer process that includes forensic examination, DNA comparison, confirmation of identity and notification of relatives.
Report.az reported the new discovery, while a separate report detailed the forensic findings.