Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged unidentified DNA profiles in January 2026, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said. A preliminary comparison revealed no matches, Factor.am reports.
The Azerbaijani side had previously reported the exchange.
On October 7, at the Fourth International Conference on Missing Persons, Ali Naghiyev, head of Azerbaijan’s State Security Service and chairman of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Citizens, stated that Azerbaijan had proposed providing Armenia with DNA samples to identify remains discovered in Nagorno-Karabakh that were believed to belong to Armenian military personnel.
According to Naghiyev, forensic examinations of remains found in those areas revealed no matches with the DNA profiles of 50 people listed as missing by the Armenian side. He noted that Armenia had provided those DNA profiles in January 2026.
Armenia’s NSS also stated that DNA profiles belonging to relatives of missing persons had not been transferred to Azerbaijan.
“Cooperation is taking place between the relevant commissions of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan dealing with missing persons, with the aim of fulfilling obligations established under international humanitarian law,” the service said.
On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack against Artsakh, subjecting the entire territory to massive artillery bombardment. The following day, September 20, the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh accepted a ceasefire proposal from the command of the Russian peacekeeping mission, agreeing to Baku’s conditions: the disarmament of the Defense Army and the dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh.
The attack killed 223 people, including 20 civilians, six of whom were minors. The forced displacement of Artsakh Armenians began on September 24, with more than 100,000 people forcibly displaced to Armenia. According to some reports, approximately 20 Armenians remained in Artsakh. Of those, another 11 subsequently returned to Armenia, one died and one was detained.
