WHERE ARE THE 350 LOST SOLDIERS?

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“We are sure that your sons are alive and they will return by all means. We beg you not to lose your last hope,” the high-rank officials of the Defense Ministry have told the relatives of the missing soldiers these words for 12 years in Erablur. The same words could be heard today on the international day of Unknown Soldier and war prisoners.

The chairman of the “Unknown soldiers’ relatives’ council” Rima Arakelyan spoke for the unknown soldiers’ mothers today, “We become comforted when our sorrow and grief become universal.” This is a quotation from Mrs. Arakelyan’s official speech. In fact the relatives of missing soldiers have no comfort today. “We haven’t lost our hopes. But it is already 14 years since my son lost, and I haven’t heard from him all those years. We get information from non official sources. We mustn’t betray our sons and we must confess; the country does not take adequate measures to find our sons. We have nobody to turn to and get a definite answer,” said Mrs. Arakelyan. They agree that the country faces serious problems today but it mustn’t forget the people who contributed to its victory.

According to the data of the “Unknown soldiers’ relatives’ council” there are about 350 missing soldiers in our country the majority of which got lost after the war while serving in the army. The efforts of the relatives to find the missing soldiers haven’t had positive results either. “The mothers of the Azeri lost soldiers also face the same problem but they forget their grief when speaking of 20 percent territory and demand it from us. This attitude is incomprehensible for us,” assumed Rima Arakelyan. Anyway, the Azeri women said during the meeting of Armenian and Azeri lost soldiers’ mothers that there is at least one Armenian war prisoner in Azeri homes in certain regions of the country. The question whether this datum is warranted or not can’t be answered so far as Azerbaijan declares that there are no war prisoners in their country. “The efforts of finding missing soldiers are at a deadlock,” said the vice chairman of “Community and Right” Suren Hovhannesyan. The missing soldiers’ mothers are sure that the measures of finding their sons will not have their positive results unless there is a state approach to the matter.