David Merkel: US can share experience with Azerbaijan on issue of missing persons

The US can share its experience with Azerbaijan on the issue of missing persons, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs David Merkel told Report.

He noted that the problem of missing people is a very important issue.

Families must understand what happened to their loved ones, he added. Identifying these people is also the responsibility of the country and the international community, Merkel said.

He emphasized that the US has extensive experience in this area.

The US has an impressive center in Hawaii, in Honolulu, and the US has committed itself to identifying its military personnel missing since the Second World War, he said.

In addition, as some conference participants noted today, there is a problem of public awareness. This is something that concerns not only Azerbaijan, but also the former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Moldova. This is an important issue that the UN raised in 2019, he concluded, expressing hope that this week at the General Assembly someone will also touch upon it.