One year after Azerbaijan’s victory against Armenian separatists in occupied Karabakh, leaders of the group face war crime charges.
Azerbaijan on Tuesday submitted to court a criminal case involving 15 detained Armenians. Following Azerbaijan’s unprecedented victory, several leaders of the de facto Armenian administration of Karabakh, occupied by Azerbaijan’s historic foe, were arrested.
The victory, which ended three decades of control, paved the way for criminal cases concerning “crimes committed with the full support of the Republic of Armenia and its Armed Forces have been submitted to the court,” the office of Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general said in a statement. The statement said the case involves “15 individuals and 2,548 episodes” of “planning, preparing and initiating” numerous alleged war crimes, the statement said. It said the charges included “waging an aggressive war” and “deportation or forced displacement of the population.”
Armenian separatist leaders Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan and Araik Harutyunyan are among those who face trial in Baku, the statement added. Armenia has condemned the separatist leaders’ arrests and demanded their liberation. Yerevan’s Foreign Ministry has said the country “will take all possible steps to protect the rights of the illegally arrested representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh, including in international courts.” Another separatist leader, Ruben Vardanyan, a reported billionaire who headed the region’s self-styled government between November 2022 and February 2023, remains in pre-trial detention in Baku.
Armenian separatists in Karabakh have agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Azerbaijan following Baku’s one-day military operation in late September last year. Since then, Baku and Yerevan have held peace talks, with both Caucasus neighbors saying that a comprehensive peace treaty is within reach.