Armenia’s Justice Minister said that a threat made this week by official Baku, which vowed to arrest and prosecute Artsakh President Arayik Harutyuyan, has no international legal foundations. Baku’s statement also has prompted some 30 organizations to condemn the threat, calling it a “manifestation of Azerbaijan’s terrorist policy.”
“Any reasonable person understands that such a criminal case does not have any international legal foundations,” said Justice Minister Karen Andreasyan. “The people of Artsakh were defending themselves during a war that was launched by Azerbaijan. Prosecuting self-defense efforts is unreasonable.”
“Harutiunyan, who presents himself as the leader of a self-proclaimed regime, will be brought to justice by operational divisions and special services and intelligence agencies as quickly as possible,” a senior prosecutor, Nemat Avazov, told reporters in Baku on Tuesday.
Avazov said that Harutiunyan is wanted for his role in Armenian missile strikes on Azerbaijan’s second largest city of Gyanja carried out during the 2020 war in Artsakh.
“The threats made by Azerbaijani authorities at the highest state level to arrest the President of the Republic of Artsakh are a clear manifestation of Baku’s terrorist policy, a gross violation of fundamental international principles and norms and and the pursuit of far-reaching geopolitical goals,” said the statement issued by some 30 non-governmental organizations in Artsakh.
“These criminal plans aim at paralyzing the system of government in the Republic of Artsakh, create panic among the population of Artsakh, distort our country’s relations with the outside world, disrupt the activity of the Russian peacekeeping mission and complete the expansionist plans of Turkey and Azerbaijan,” added the statement.
“Azerbaijan’s terrorist policies are directed against the statehood and the citizens of Artsakh. Our people should not be subject to provocations, they should unite, act against the criminal goals of the enemy, and put aside the existing disagreements,” the groups urged in their statement.
“We call on the international community, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship and the United Nations to condemn Azerbaijan’s state terrorist policy and take steps to curb it. Such policy is a danger not only to Artsakh and its citizens, but also to the entire civilized world,” the statement concluded.
