By Ilkin Izzet – Trend:

Over 20 years of work of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons the remains of some of 1,400 Azerbaijani hostages were returned in Azerbaijan, a part of the hostages were freed, said the head of the Working Group of the State Commission Firudin Sadigov Nov.18 at the conference on “Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: the world must know the truth”, which was held at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Azerbaijan.

He said that as a result of wars and conflicts, civilians are also being killed, taken hostage along with the soldiers.

Sadigov said that as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijanis were expelled from their places of residence, from their native lands.

“Until now, more than 4,000 people are considered missing,” said Sadigov. “And today, the State Commission conducts searches for them.”

The head of the Working Group said that the Armenians subjected hostages to brutal tortures, forced them to do hard work.

The conference was jointly organized by the Ministry of National Security, the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons and the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Azerbaijan.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.