Families of people who went missing during the First Karabakh War held a peaceful rally at Schuman Square in Brussels, home to key EU institutions, including the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European External Action Service.
According to Report‘s European bureau, the rally was organized by the public association “Families of Missing Persons in Karabakh” (Qarabağ İtkin Ailələri).
The participants, whose loved ones have been missing for more than 30 years, sought to draw the international community’s attention to the fate of their family members.
Amid solemn music and the ringing of bells, a statement was read out on behalf of one of the more than 4,000 missing people: “I am not a number. I have a name. I am someone’s son or daughter. Do not let me remain forgotten.”
An elderly man cycling past stopped to ask, “Which country are you from, and what is happening here?” After participants explained the purpose of the rally, he expressed surprise: “Nobody ever talks about Azerbaijan. I’ve never heard about it!”
The organizers also presented an installation featuring photographs of missing persons and symbolic letters written in their names. Clothes fluttering in the wind symbolized the belongings left behind by those who went missing.
The installation deeply moved two Belgian friends, Griet and Marie. After learning that the clothes were symbolic, they expressed their sympathy to the participants. “After all these years, do you still have hope?” Griet asked.
“We want to know the truth about their fate,” replied the wife of one of the missing persons.
Despite progress in the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the fate of people who went missing in the early 1990s remains unresolved. The list of missing persons still includes 4,010 people, among them 71 children, 288 women and 398 elderly people.