Karabakh officials said that the young men, identified as Alen Sargsian, Vahe Hovsepian and Levon Grigorian, were “kidnapped” at the Azerbaijani checkpoint blocking the corridor as they were escorted by Russian peacekeepers along with other Karabakh civilians.
One of the officials, Artak Beglarian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the peacekeepers are negotiating with the Azerbaijani side to try have them freed. Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, held an emergency session of his security council later in the day.
“Azerbaijan is continuing its genocidal policy towards the people of Artsakh, once again violating international humanitarian law,” read a Karabakh statement issued shortly after the detentions.
The Azerbaijani authorities did not immediately comment on the arrests. But media outlets linked to them reported that the three Karabakh Armenians are suspected of being members of a Karabakh football team that had “disrespected” the Azerbaijani national flag in a 2021 video posted on social media.
Beglarian said he “cannot confirm” that Sargsian, Hovsepian and Grigorian played for that youth team based in the Karabakh town of Martuni. “All three of them are students of Armenian universities,” he said.
In any case, added Beglarian, the Azerbaijani allegations are “absurd” and aimed at intimidating Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population opposed to the restoration of Azerbaijani control over their region.
Another Karabakh man, Vagif Khachatrian, was arrested at the Azerbaijani checkpoint in late July while being evacuated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Armenia. The 68-year-old was taken Baku to stand trial on charges of killing and deporting Karabakh’s ethnic Azerbaijani residents in December 1991, at the start of the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Karabakh’s leadership rejected the “false” accusations and demanded Khachatrian’s immediate release. The Armenian Foreign Ministry likewise condemned Khachatrian’s arrest as a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law” and “war crime.”
The ministry condemned the latest detentions as well. It described them as a further indication that Baku intends to “avoid dialogue with Nagorno-Karabakh by all means and continue instead his policy of ethnic cleansing.”
Khachatrian is the first Karabakh patient arrested by the Azerbaijani authorities during regular medical evacuations organized by the ICRC after Baku halted last December commercial traffic through the only road connecting Karabakh to Armenia.
Last week, Baku also allowed other categories of Karabakh’s population, notably university students and holders of Russian passports, to travel to Armenia. They are escorted by Russian peacekeepers.
