Speaking to lawmakers on August 24 to introduce the government’s new five-year plan, Pashinian said that the fate of another 243 soldiers remains unknown, while some captives held in Azerbaijan have yet to return home.
He added that thousands were displaced as a result of the fighting, causing “extraordinary” socio-economic damage as part of the “severe consequences” of the war.
Armenia-backed ethnic Armenian forces established control over Nagorno-Karabakh and some surrounding areas in a war with Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. The two sides have skirmished regularly over the years, but a major fighting that broke out in the region last September resulted in Baku regaining control of the surrounding districts, and much of Nagorno-Karabakh itself.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a Russian-brokered cease-fire in early November 2020, resulting in the deployment of 2,000 Russian peacekeeping forces to the conflict zone.
Azerbaijan has reported 2,783 of its soldiers were killed in the fighting.