Statement of the RA MFA regarding the abduction of persons moving from Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia

On August 28, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, Alen Sargsyan, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan, were abducted by Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies at an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin corridor. The transfer was pre-agreed and was carried out accompanied by Russian peacekeeping forces. According to point 6 of the tripartite statement of November 9, they had to control the uninterrupted connection between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh through the Lachin Corridor. The mentioned persons were moving to the Republic of Armenia to continue their study. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia issued a statement about this.

"This step of Azerbaijan, which was preceded on July 29 by the kidnapping of 68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan, who was moving to the Republic of Armenia in order to receive immediate medical assistance by the International Committee of the Red Cross, in 2020. It is a gross violation of the tripartite declaration of November 9, the legally binding decisions of the UN International Court of Justice and an open contempt for the unequivocal and direct calls of the international community, including the members of the UN Security Council.

These incidents, which took place under various false pretexts, give reason to fear that Azerbaijan is openly planning to subject the entire people of Nagorno-Karabakh to collective punishment, which in the 90s of the previous centuries and in 2020 had to face the large-scale aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan and defend his right to peaceful life in his homeland.

Regardless of age, gender, health status, mass deprivation of the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh from all fundamental rights, starvation, blocking the supply of medicine, essential goods, gas, electricity, targeting civilians by snipers and terrorizing the entire population through kidnappings, as demonstrated by the blocking of the Lachin Corridor The real ambitions of the Azerbaijani leadership are to avoid dialogue with Nagorno-Karabakh and instead to continue its policy of ethnic cleansing. Instead of supporting the steps aimed at establishing peace and stability in the region, the Azerbaijani side has obviously invested all its efforts in defeating them.

The prevention of mass crimes, using all the possible tools, is the direct obligation assumed by all the actors who have an impact on the situation and, in general, by the civilized world," the statement said.