20:30,
This was stated by German Interior Minister Nancy Feser.
“In Berlin alone, more than 100 police officers were injured as a result of violent actions, as bottles and pyrotechnics were thrown at them,” she said.
11:46,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 19, ARMENPRESS. More than 3,000 of the over 100,000 forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh who arrived to Armenia have now left the country, PM Nikol Pashinyan has said.
“As of today, more than 3000 forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh have left the Republic of Armenia. I don’t want to make conclusions regarding this topic. Perhaps most of them are visiting their family members to spend some time with them. I hope we are giving this message very clear, and also calling upon our brothers and sisters forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh to consider staying in Armenia a priority . We are doing everything to support them. In the case when there will be de-facto no desire or opportunity to return to Nagorno-Karabakh, our policy is to do everything so that they stay in the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.
“We’ve allocated over 100 million dollars, we will implement the most various projects,” Pashinyan said, calling on the forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh to stay in Armenia.
17:18,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Various countries and international organizations have so far pledged a total of €35 million in assistance for Armenia through the ICRC to meet the needs of the forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan has said.
Another €35 million has already been allocated, 15 million of which will be provided as budgetary support to the Armenian government. Development agencies will direct the rest of the funds through their representations to support the forcibly displaced persons.
Furthermore, over the course of the past two weeks Armenia received more than 100 tons of humanitarian aid for the forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The government is monitoring the issues of the forcibly displaced persons and continues to develop support programs accordingly. The past two weeks were used to solve the primary issues, but it’s already time to clarify the further assistance programs in the direction of mid-term and long-term tasks. Soon these programs will be presented to get opinions and adjust the decisions more appropriately,” Khachatryan, who is in charge of the Humanitarian Center responding to the crisis, said at a press conference.
India has shipped the first consignment of Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) rockets to a foreign country.
According to a post by Ordnance Factory Ambajri (OFAJ) on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the first consignment of Pinaka Mk-1 enhanced rocket (ER) was shipped on 5 October 2023.
The post stated, "OFAJ has successfully made a mark for itself on the global stage for Pinaka Rocket, with the flagging off, of the first consignment of Pinaka Mk I enhanced Rocket against export by Somnath Tripathy, Senior General Manager OFAJ on 5th October, in the presence of all stakeholders."
"This achievement is a testimonial of our craftsmanship and determination, and we are poised to contribute significantly to our Nation’s growth," the post further stated.
However, the post did not mention which country received the rockets, although Armenia is the likely recipient.
In September last year, Armenia ordered an undisclosed quantity of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-developed Pinaka launchers, rockets, and associated equipments worth Rs 2,000 crore or $245 million.
These Pinaka Mk-1 ER rockets can strike land targets up to a distance of about 45 kilometres. A guided Pinaka Mk-2 rocket can strike targets at a range of 75 kilometres.
Another, even longer-range rocket, Pinaka Mk-2 ER, is under development, which will allow the Pinaka battery to hit targets at ranges of more than 120 kilometres.
According to reports, Pinaka launchers likely made their way to Armenia via Iran, in July this year, irking the Azerbaijani government.
Azerbaijan expressed concerns about the expanding military cooperation between Armenia and India and requested a reconsideration of India's decision to supply lethal weapons to Armenia.
Additionally, Armenia signed a deal worth $155 million with Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited for supplying an undisclosed amount of 155mm/52 calibre advanced towed artillery gun systems.
Baku continues to arrest ex-officials of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), which is in the process of formally dissolving itself.
Azerbaijani security services detained three former presidents of the defunct entity during the course of October 3.
Azerbaijani pro-government media reported that Arayik Harutyunyan, who served as de facto president of the NKR from May 2020 until September 1, had been detained by Azerbaijan's State Security Service (SSS) in Karabakh, and that he was being taken to Baku.
Earlier the same day, media reported the arrest of the two previous NKR presidents – Bako Saakyan (2007-20) and Arkadi Ghukasyan (1997-2007) – and former chair of parliament David Ishkhanyan by the SSS. The SSS is yet to comment on these four reported arrests.
The NKR exercised de facto control over Nagorno-Karabakh – an Armenian-majority region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan – for more than 30 years. It was disbanded on September 28 by its last president, Samvel Shahramanyan, after Azerbaijan's lightning offensive to retake the territory on September 19-20.
Harutyunyan was the commander-in-chief of the local armed force, the Artsakh Defense Army, during the 2020 Second Karabakh War which saw Azerbaijan retake most of the territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh that it had lost in the first war in the 1990s. (At the time the Artsakh Defense Force and the army of the Republic of Armenia were largely integrated with each other and fought together against Azerbaijan.)
On October 4, 2020, during the second war, Harutyunyan confirmed that he had ordered a missile strike earlier that day on Azerbaijan's second-largest city, Ganja. He said the missiles targeted military facilities, but dozens of civilians were killed.
Four separate ballistic missile attacks on the city killed 23 people and wounded nearly 120. Civilians in other cities in western Azerbaijan including Barda, Tartar, Aghdam, Aghjabedi, and Naftalan also were subject to bombardment by Armenian/Karabakhi forces. Human Rights Watch described the attacks on populated areas as "unlawfully indiscriminate."
Several weeks later, Azerbaijan issued an international search warrant for Harutyunyan and other Karabakhi Armenian officials.
On October 4, Azerbaijani media identified Alov Safaraliyev as Harutyunyan's state-appointed defense lawyer.
Harutyunyan and his two predecessors are not the first former Karabakhi officials to be arrested by Azerbaijan amid the surrender of NKR and mass exodus of Armenians from Karabakh. Ruben Vardanyan, the billionaire and former state minister of NKR, was arrested and placed in 4-month detention awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges.
David Babayan, former de facto foreign minister, was arrested on September 29 and now faces 25 different charges – mostly related to separatism and terrorism, the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office told media. Babayan was among those declared wanted by Azerbaijan over the Ganja bombings.
In addition, former NKR Defense Minister Lyova Mnatsakanyan was arrested and accused of torturing Azerbaijanis during the NKR's de facto rule.
And David Manukyan, a former commander in the Artsakh Defense Army was arrested by the SSS on September 27 and now faces charges of terrorism, creating illegal armed groups, and illegally crossing the border.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined the talks in Moldova on June 1President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has opted out of talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan scheduled to take place on Friday in Granada, Spain, Azerbaijani media reported.
Aliyev and Pashinyan were scheduled to discuss normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the margins of a European Union summit with the participation of the European Council President Charles Michel, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
According to Azerbaijani press reports, Aliyev opted out of the talk after France and Germany rejected Baku’s request to include President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in the meeting.
The same group met in Moldova’s capital Chisinau in June.
Azerbaijan has also refused to take part in any talks that include the participation of France.
Turkish media outlets also reported that Erdogan has decided to cancel his trip to Granada.
Pashinyan, on Wednesday, lamented that Aliyev will not attend the meeting, but confirmed that he plans to travel to Granada.
Despite his assertions last week that no documents would be signed during the talks in Spain, Pashinyan on Wednesday said that there was a high possibility that “a crucial document” was going to be signed, without providing specifics.
“We have been confirming our visit to Granada until the very last moment, even today,” Pashinyan told lawmakers in parliament. “Furthermore, we had a very constructive and optimistic outlook, because we believed that there was a chance to sign a document of crucial significance. We were assessing that likelihood even as recently as this morning.”
“Of course, we regret that the meeting will not take place, but we hope that the framework document, which is on the table, will be signed at an opportune time. I am ready to sign that agreement,” added Pashinyan.
Again Pashinyan directed his anger toward the opposition, which has accused the prime minister of preparing to make more concessions.
Pashinyan scoffed at what he called the “puppet opposition,” saying their points were moot, since the meeting with Aliyev has been canceled.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan faces the challenge of providing for Nagorno Karabakh refugees while mitigating risks of Azeri aggression against sovereign Armenian territory.
Caught against a setting sun, the clouds on Monday evening formed an otherworldly spiral of burnt orange above the town of Goris, eastern Armenia.
The day before, a lonely bus ferried in the last of some 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing a one-day military campaign that saw Azeri forces secure complete control of the once-autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, itself situated within Azerbaijan’s borders.
Few among the new arrivals have any love for Nikol Pashinyan. A feeling shared by thousands of demonstrators who poured out in the Armenian capital of Yerevan last week to protest against the prime minister’s handling of relations with Azerbaijan and Russia, viewed as precipitating the loss of a place regarded by many as the spiritual homeland of the Armenian people.
While the initial unrest may have since quietened down, what recent developments in the long-running conflict between these South Caucasian nations may mean for Pashinyan’s hold on power remains an open and deeply fraught question.
“It’s the most terrifying thing in the world, losing everything like this.”
Mila Hovsepyan spoke softly as if in a daze from a shelter in Goris near the Armenian-Azeri border on Monday afternoon. She and her mother Maro, who suffers from severe mental disability due to advanced cerebral arteriosclerosis, arrived just days before on a bus from Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital of Stepanakert.
“We went straight to the hospital because my mother is very unwell. She cannot walk, and needs a separate toilet and bathroom so I can wash her with dignity,” Mila explained. “We need a wheelchair for me to move her, and a special mattress that prevents sores because she spends almost all of her time in bed.”
“We have no family here,” she said. “It’s the most terrifying thing in the world, losing everything like this.”
At this stage, their story is fairly typical. The vast majority fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia over the past week have now pushed deeper into the country, afraid of remaining so close to the border and the Azeri forces stationed there. Those left behind in Goris are largely either elderly or infirm, or without relatives in Armenia who might otherwise provide assistance.
Azerbaijan’s seizure of the mountainous enclave, which has claimed but failed to secure international recognition of independence since 1991, happened at lightning speed. Following a build-up of Azeri troops around the region, Russian peacekeepers stationed in the area fell short of preventing the launch of an all-out offensive on September 19 that lasted less than 24 hours before authorities in Stepanakert announced their surrender.
Although Artsakh, as it was known by its ethnic Armenian inhabitants, had by that point been under blockade for more than ten months, restricting the supply of food and desperately needed medicines, deputy mayor of Goris Irina Yolyan says there was little Armenian authorities might have done to prepare for an exodus of this scale.
“Right now we’re addressing their immediate needs – shelter, food, clothing and medicine,” she said. “At the same time, we’re also registering people and trying to understand what they may need in the near- to mid-term, especially as winter approaches.”
Asked about how Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has handled relations with both Azerbaijan and Russia, still formally a mediator between the long-warring South Caucasian nations, her manner becomes suddenly cold.
“Thousands of families are now homeless. Azerbaijan is like a steamroller across asphalt,” she said. “Nothing is stopping them, and this situation creates a great unhappiness, a great discontent with territorial losses and the sheer level of human suffering.”
Most Armenians welcomed what seemed a new dawn in the country’s politics when Nikol Pashinyan assumed power following a pro-democracy and anti-corruption revolution in 2018. Many have now grown increasingly disillusioned with the Prime Minister’s attempts to turn away from historic reliance on Moscow as a security guarantor to seek warmer ties with the West. That disillusionment last week boiled over into protests on the streets of Yerevan, with placards and chanted slogans denouncing Pashinyan as a ‘traitor’ to the country’s interests.
According to Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Pennsylvania, the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh has called Pashinyan’s diplomacy into serious doubt. The prime minister’s legitimacy now appears to rest on the question of how his government faces up to the challenges of managing the emerging refugee crisis, while at the same time mitigating risks of Azeri aggression against sovereign Armenian territory.
Prior to the assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan had long expressed keen interest in the prospect of opening up a corridor through Armenia to Nakhchivan, an autonomous Azeri enclave within Armenian borders. This would in turn provide an overland passage to Turkey, further cementing Azerbaijan’s emerging position as a key trade and transit hub for Russia amid Western sanctions imposed in response to Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“The government is now in a place where it has very little room to manoeuvre,” Hess said. “The refugee crisis is really a question of state capacity – this is not a particularly wealthy country. What would precipitate further demonstrations would be a deteriorating situation around the refugees, and also the potential for further conflict with Azerbaijan.”
“I’m not saying the political crisis is necessarily going to lead to a revolutionary change in government,” he clarified. “But Pashinyan will need international help to ensure there isn’t a further deepening of that crisis as the result of Azerbaijani aggression turning it into a question about the future of Armenia itself.”
Right now, these wider geopolitical dilemmas all remain fairly academic to Bernik Lazaryan, who fled Nagorno-Karabakh last week with his wife, mother and infant daughter. Over several hours one night prior to his departure, he claims to have carried home the body of a childhood friend shot dead by Azeri forces, only to discover their village had already fallen.
“I have no idea what will happen to us next,” he said outside the Soviet-era Hotel Goris, where he is currently being put up with his family. “We must simply find a way to live.”
Children are among the displaced Artsakh residents left for Armenia
The United Nations will send a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time in about 30 years, scrambling to address humanitarian needs after Azerbaijan attacked Artsakh last week triggering a mass exodus, a spokesman has said.
“The government of Azerbaijan and the UN have agreed on a mission to the region. The mission will take place over the weekend,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Friday.
The announcement came on the heels of a request by Armenia to the International Court of Justice to order Azerbaijan to withdraw all its troops from civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh so that the UN have safe access, the court said on Friday.
The ICJ, in February ordered Azerbaijan to ensure free movement through the Lachin corridor to and from Artsakh.
In a request for provisional measures submitted on Thursday, Armenia asked the court to reaffirm the orders it gave Azerbaijan in February and to order it to refrain from all actions directly or indirectly aimed at displacing the remaining Armenians from Artsakh.
Some international experts have said the exodus of from Artsakh meets the conditions for the war crime of “deportation or forcible transfer,” or even a crime against humanity.
“We haven’t had access to there about 30 years,” said Dujarric, due to the “very complicated and delicate geopolitical situation.”
“So, it’s very important that we will be able to get in,” he continued, adding that the mission would do so by air from Azerbaijan.
A team of about a dozen people led by the UN’s humanitarian affairs department will assess the needs of people who have remained in the territory and those who are on the move, he added.
“And of course, it bears reminding of the need for everyone to respect international law and especially international human rights law,” he said.
Protecting the region’s civilians and preventing further instability should be an urgent priority.
Thursday,
‘Ethnic Cleansing’ In Karabakh All But Complete, Says Yerevan
• Nane Sahakian
• Astghik Bedevian
Amenia - Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh ride in a truck upon their arrival at
the border village of Kornidzor, .
All ethnic Armenians remaining in Nagorno-Karabakh will flee to Armenia in the
coming days, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday, accusing
Azerbaijan of practically finishing “ethnic cleansing” in the region.
“Analysis shows that there will be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh in the
coming days. This is a direct act of ethnic cleansing and depatriation, and
something we have been warning the international community about for a long
time,” charged Pashinian.
He complained that international criticism of Azerbaijan, which went on a
large-scale military offensive in Karabakh on September 19, has not been backed
up by “concrete actions.”
“If declarations of condemnation are not followed by commensurate political and
legal decisions, condemnations become acts of acquiescence,” he added during a
weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
He spoke as a steady stream of Karabakh Armenian refugees crossed into Armenia
through the Lachin corridor for the fifth consecutive day. According to the
Armenian government, their total number reached 76,400 by 8 p.m. local time. The
figure is equivalent to nearly two-thirds of Karabakh’s estimated population.
Nagorno-Karabakh - Refugees gather around a fire to warm themselves as they
stuck in a jam of vehicles on the road leading towards the Armenian border,
September 25, 2023.
The government pledged to help evacuate people remaining in Stepanakert and
other Karabakh towns and villages. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian said
many of them own no cars, trucks or other vehicles that would transport them to
Armenia.
The government is planning to send a convoy of 35 buses to Stepanakert for that
purpose, Khachatrian said, adding that Russian peacekeepers have agreed to
escort it. He said the buses cannot head to Karabakh now because the
50-kilometer road connecting it to Armenia remains clogged by hundreds of
vehicles. It now takes at least 30 hours to drive from the Karabakh capital to
the Armenian border, Khachatrian told Pashinian and fellow cabinet members.
In the Armenian border town of Goris, government officials and private
volunteers kept scrambling to provide the arriving refugees with food, housing
and other vital assistance. A spokeswoman for Pashinian said only 17,150
refugees have accepted accommodation provided by the government in hotels,
resorts and public buildings across the country. The prime minister announced
later in the day that each refugee will receive a one-off cash payment of
100,000 drams ($260).
Meanwhile, Baku has denied the accusations of ethnic cleansing and insisted that
it wants to "reintegrate" the enclave's ethnic Armenian population into
Azerbaijan. In a statement, the Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry urged ethnic
Armenian residents to stay in Karabakh.
Armenia - Karabakh refugees board a bus near a Red Cross registration center in
Goris, .
Russia, which has been criticized by Yerevan for its peacekeepers' failure to
prevent the fall of Karabakh, suggested that the fleeing Karabakh Armenians have
nothing to fear.
"It's difficult to say who is to blame [for the exodus.] There is no direct
reason for such actions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The exodus followed a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the lighting
Azerbaijani offensive. Under the terms of that agreement, Karabakh disarmed its
army, paving the way for the restoration of full Azerbaijani control over the
territory.
In line with the deal, Samvel Shahramanian, the Karabakh president, also signed
a decree on Thursday disbanding all government bodies and saying that the
self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh, set up in September 1991, will cease to exist
on January 1.
The ceasefire also commits Baku to permitting the “free, voluntary, and
unrestrained passage” of Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian residents, including
''servicemen who have laid down arms.” Tigran Abrahamian, an Armenian opposition
parliamentarian who used to work in Karabakh, said that despite this provision,
the Azerbaijani authorities have threatened to arrest some Karabakh Armenians.
“I know names but it’s very dangerous to publicize them now,” Abrahamian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“The people remaining in Artsakh now, from ordinary citizens to the president,
have the status of hostages,” he said.
Ruben Vardanyan, a former Karabakh premier, was arrested by Azerbaijani security
forces in the Lachin corridor on Wednesday.
Armenia Moves Closer To Ratifying ‘Anti-Russian’ Treaty
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian greets Russian President Vladimir Putin
at Zvartnots airport in Yerevan, November 23, 2022.
In what Russia called an “extremely hostile” move, Armenia’s leadership on
Thursday took another step towards accepting jurisdiction of an international
court that issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in
March.
The Armenian parliament’s committee on legal affairs gave the green light for
parliamentary ratification by of the founding treaty of the International
Criminal Court (ICC). This means that the National Assembly controlled by Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party should debate and vote on it next week.
The decision came amid a continuing deterioration of Armenia’s relations with
Russia, which is increasingly calling into question the long-standing alliance
of the two nations. The Russian Foreign Ministry listed earlier this month
Yerevan’s plans to ratify the treaty, known as the Rome Statute, among “a series
of unfriendly steps” taken by Pashinian’s administration.
Pashinian reaffirmed the ratification plans on September 24 as he blamed Moscow
for Azerbaijan’s latest military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and effectively
accused it seeking to turn Armenia into a Russian province. He claimed that
signing up to the Rome Statute would help to safeguard Armenia’s independence.
Netherlands -- The building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague,
November 23, 2015.
The main official rationale for the ratification is to bring Azerbaijan to
justice for its “war crimes” and to prevent more Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia.
Pro-government members of the parliament committee echoed it as they backed a
corresponding decision proposed by Pashinian’s government.
Opposition politicians and other critics counter that Azerbaijan is not a party
to the Rome Statute and would therefore ignore any pro-Armenian ruling by the
ICC. They say the real purpose of ratifying the treaty is to drive another wedge
between Russia and Armenia and score points in the West which has accused Russia
of committing war crimes in Ukraine. The ICC endorsed those accusations when it
issued the arrest warrant for Putin in March.
Independent legal experts believe that the ratification will commit the Armenian
authorities to arresting Putin and extraditing him to The Hague tribunal if he
visits the South Caucasus country. Yeghishe Kirakosian, who represents the
Armenian government in international legal bodies, denied this during a meeting
of the parliament panel boycotted by opposition lawmakers.
Kirakosian claimed that Putin and other heads of state enjoy immunity from
arrest and that the Rome Statute allows countries to sign bilateral agreements
to ignore ICC arrest warrants. Yerevan offered to sign such a deal with Moscow
in April, he said, adding that the Russian side has still not responded to the
proposal.
Armenia - Yeghishe Kirakosian (center) speaks at a parliament committe meeting
in Yerevan, .
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he is “not familiar” with the proposal
cited by Kirakosian. Armenia’s ratification of the ICC treaty would be a move
“extremely hostile” towards Russia, said Peskov.
“Moscow hopes that there will be sober-minded forces in the National Assembly of
Armenia that will not rubber-stamp a decision that is obviously toxic for
Armenian-Russian relations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry warned, for its part.
The “political decision” to ratify the treaty is unacceptable to Moscow, it told
the RIA Novosti news agency.
The ministry already warned on Monday that Pashinian is “making a huge mistake
by deliberately trying to destroy the multifaceted and centuries-old ties
between Armenia and Russia.”
Armenia was among 120 countries that signed the Rome Statute, in 1998. But its
parliament did not rush to ratify the document. In 2004, the country’s
Constitutional Court ruled that the treaty runs counter to several provisions of
the Armenian constitution which guarantee national sovereignty over judicial
affairs.
Pashinian’s government decided last December to ask the court to again look into
the Rome Statute and determine its conformity with the constitution that has
been twice amended since 2004. The court ruled in March that the Rome Statute
conforms to the amended constitution. The ruling came one week after the ICC
issued the arrest warrant for Putin.
Azerbaijan Indicts Former Karabakh Premier After Arrest
AZERBAIJAN - A screenshort of Azerbaijani government video of Ruben Vardanyan's
transfer to a prison in Baku, .
Authorities in Azerbaijan brought on Thursday a string of criminal charges
against Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian-born businessman and former
Nagorno-Karabakh premier, one day after arresting him in the Lachin corridor.
Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership from
November 2022 to February 2023, was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint on the
main road connecting Karabakh Armenia as he fled the region along with tens of
thousands of its ordinary residents.
Azerbaijan’s State Security Service said the prominent billionaire was charged
with “financing terrorism,” illegally entering Karabakh last year and supplying
its armed forces with military equipment. It said an Azerbaijani court remanded
him in pre-trial custody.
Born and raised in Armenia, Vardanyan is a former investment banker who made his
fortune in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s. The 55-year-old relocated to Karabakh
and was appointed as its state minister last November shortly before Baku
blocked traffic through the Lachin corridor. He made defiant statements during
and after his short tenure, urging the Karabakh Armenians to resist Azerbaijani
efforts to force them into submission.
Vardanyan is the first Karabakh leader arrested after last week’s Azerbaijani
military offensive that paved the way for the restoration of Azerbaijani control
over the Armenian-populated territory. There are growing indications that Baku
is seeking to also jail other current and former Karabakh officials.
Nagorno Karabakh - Davit Babayan, 31March, 2022.
Davit Babayan, a well-known adviser to Karabakh’s current and former presidents,
said on Thursday that “the Azerbaijani side has demanded my arrival in Baku.” He
said he will turn himself in later in the day because he does not want to “cause
serious damage” to other Karabakh Armenians who have not yet left the region.
In Yerevan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed serious concern at
“arbitrary arrests” made at the Azerbaijani checkpoint. Without mentioning
Vardanyan by name, he said the Armenian government will take “necessary steps to
protect the rights of arbitrarily arrested individuals, including in
international bodies.”
The government on Wednesday asked the European Court of Human Rights to order
Baku to urgently provide information about Vardanyan’s whereabouts and detention
conditions. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said it will do its best to try to
secure the tycoon’s release.
Vardanyan, who renounced his Russian citizenship late last year, has been
increasingly critical of Pashinian in recent months, repeatedly denouncing his
recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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