Azerbaijani authorities detained former Nagorno-Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan on Thursday (5/10), on charges of involvement in launching an aggressive war and alleged war crimes.
This detention comes amid ongoing tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed region, Nagorno-Karabakh.
Quoting The National News , before clashes flared in the region, Harutyunyan resigned from his post as president of Nagorno-Karabakh in early September. He is currently being detained by Azerbaijani authorities who are conducting various investigations regarding his role in the escalation of the conflict that occurred several years ago. “Harutyunyan is suspected of waging an aggressive war and alleged war crimes,” the public prosecutor and security services said in a joint statement.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, has been going on for decades. Prolonged separatist fighting, backed by the Armenian military, ended in 1994, but tensions never really eased.
In 2020, the situation escalated again when Azerbaijan launched an offensive to retake the disputed territory, with the conflict leaving many victims in the country.
Recently, the Azerbaijani military launched another lightning operation to fight separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which led to a mass exodus of the region’s population to Armenia.
Source : RMOL