Azerbaijan discovers mass grave in Agdam province in Karabakh: Reports

Azerbaijan has discovered a mass grave in the Karabakh region, local media reported on Wednesday.

The mass grave, where the remains of four people were found, was discovered in the Saricali village of Agdam district, according to state news agency Azertac.

The victims were uncovered during mine clearance operations in the region, Azertac reported citing the press service of the country's General Prosecutor's Office.

Azerbaijan's State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons has begun work identifying the remains and searching for more that may yet to be discovered.

The Karabakh region has been the site of mass killings and burials since the First Karabakh War in the early 1990s, among which the most notable has been the Khojaly massacre by Armenian forces.

A two-hour Armenian offensive on the town of Khojaly killed 613 Azerbaijani citizens — including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people — and seriously injured 487 others, according to Azerbaijani figures.

Some 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing, while eight families completely wiped out.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh — a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions, including Agdam.

In the fall of 2020 in 44 days of fighting, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation. The Russian-brokered peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.