There are about 1,000 families of missing persons in Armenia, but August 30, the International Day of the Missing, is not commemorated at the state level any year. This was announced during a press conference on August 28 by Gor Muradyan, the uncle of Henry Muradyan, who went missing in 2020.
According to him, last year the families of the missing organized an event on their own, focusing mainly on legal issues. This year, it is planned to talk about the psychological state of the families of the missing and the experiences of the parents.
“We must present the experiences of the parents from the stage. The event will take place at the Cinema House and I hope that all of us will raise all this, inform them, because in the republic the issue of the missing is very little heard,” Muradyan said.
He also complained that not enough attention is paid to the issue of the missing in public and political discussions.
“We talk about all the problems, we talk about captives, we talk about forced disappearances, we talk about forced displacements, but for some reason, the Prime Minister is not asked about the missing. And since the question is not asked, naturally there is no answer,” he said, asking the media to cover the event scheduled for August 30 at the Cinema House.
At the same time, relatives and parents of missing persons from the 1990s, as well as the events of 2020 and 2023, have decided to unite and create an association.
“Every year, we tried to find out the fate of our children separately: where are our children? We decided to unite and create this association,” the relatives of the missing noted.
The goal of the newly created association is to unite about 1,000 families of the missing on one platform and work together to find out the fates of their relatives.
According to representatives of the association, during Kamo Abazyan's tenure, some success was recorded in the search for the missing. Two sessions were held after his resignation, but there have been no clear changes so far.
They reported that negotiations on the issue of the missing are continuing, and the relevant committees are also cooperating.
The relatives hope that the search will resume and it will be possible to obtain new information about the fates of the missing.
"We hope that the search will begin. God willing, we will find all our children alive," the relatives of the missing noted.
