The State Service of Emergency Situations of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is carrying out search operations to find the bodies of the fallen servicemen in the Hadrut region.

But search operations in the areas of Zangelan, Fizuli, Jebrayil and south of Hadrut haven’t yet started as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is still negotiating with Azerbaijan, the State Service of Emergency Situations of Artsakh spokesperson Hunan Tadevosyan told Armenpress.

He said that so far they have found 655 bodies, and the latter were handed over to their parents. “Search operations continued in the Hadrut region on December 1, but the rescuers haven’t yet entered the town of Hadrut. Nineteen bodies were discovered in that region. Search operations nearby Hadrut are continuing at the moment,” Tadevosyan added.

The rescuers of the State Service of Emergency Situations of Artsakh haven’t yet reached the areas of Zangelan, Fizuli, Jebrayil and south of Hadrut, but Tadevosyan says there is positive development in the talks between the ICRC and Azerbaijan. “We have the potential to carry out search operations; the problem is the negotiating party. The Azerbaijani side wasn’t giving permission to conduct search operations, but now they have given the permission. Negotiations between the ICRC and the Azerbaijani side take place, and we implement,” Hunan Tadevosyan said.

And Zara Amatuni, the ICRC Armenia spokesperson, said the parties to the conflict are the ones who decide when and where to implement search operations, while the ICRC is a mediator and an assisting side in that regard. “Yes, the ICRC has an assisting role, but we can’t explain or comment on why the sides have taken any given decision. The work is in progress, and every day the search operations take place, the search operations haven’t been stopped,” she said.