Arrest list in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh)

According to Armenian and Azerbaijani media reports, Azerbaijan has compiled an arrest list with the names of 300 Artsakh-Armenians who were members of the government, the armed forces, or the parliament. There have already been arrests, and some of the detainees are still in Stepanakert where they are, so to say, held as hostages. Even children are said to have been abducted. Today, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) wrote a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), asking the organization to advocate on behalf of these persons and demand safe conduct to Armenia. “Over the last few days, Azerbaijan already arrested several leading representatives of the Artsakh-Armenians. As a human rights organization, we are very worried about their safety,” stated Sarah Reinke, the STP’s expert on Eastern Europe, in Göttingen today. “We are emphatically calling on the ICRC to advocate for free access to the prisoners. A delegation must ensure that they are unharmed – and international protection is needed to do so. In a letter to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, we asked her to support this request to the ICRC.”

In March of 1915, in the era of the Ottoman Empire, there had already been a similar list – and hundreds of Armenians were arrested on April 24, 1915, then brought to the heartland of the empire where they were murdered, some after sham trials. This crime is to be seen as the beginning of the genocide of the Armenians (which the German Federal Government acknowledged as such in 2016). “The fact that this practice was revived confirms our worst fears. History seems to be repeating itself before our eyes,” Reinke warned. “After the EU and the German Federal Government just watched the almost complete displacement of 120,000 Artsakh-Armenians – despite all warnings – it is now important to at least protect especially vulnerable individuals and to provide humanitarian care to the displaced.

Among those arrested are current and former members of the government and the parliament of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) as well as commanders of the self-defense forces. The individuals in question are: Arajik Harutjunjan, who served as President until September 2023, David Babajan, the former Foreign Minister, the former Presidents Bako Sahakjan and Arkadi Ghukasjan, the Speaker of the Parliament, Davit Ischchanjan, the former Head of government, Ruben Wardanjan, Lewon Mnazakanjan and Davit Manukjan, former commanders of Artsakh’s self-defense forces, and the head of the security council, Arschawir Gharamjan. There will probably be more arbitrary arrests in the next few days.