Azerbaijani media outlets today report that according to Ilaha Huseynova, who heads the Public Relations Department of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Azerbaijan, ICRC representatives again visited former Artsakh Republic officials arrested last year.

Huseynova, according to the Azerbaijani media, said that personal meetings were held with the detainees and conditions were created for communication with their families.

The following former Artsakh Republic officials are now held in Azerbaijan awaiting trial on a variety of criminal charges: Former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, the second, third and fourth presidents of the Republic of Artsakh (Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan), former Artsakh National Assembly Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, former Artsakh Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, former Artsakh Defense Army Commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, and former Artsakh Armed Forces Deputy Commander Davit Manukyan.

A search of the ICRC’s website to verify this report came up empty. Hetq has written to the ICRC for verification.

In addition to the above former officials, there are scores of Armenian civilian and military detainees in Azerbaijan.

One example is Vagif Khachatryan who was detained by Azerbaijan border guards on July 29 along the Lachin Corridor and later charged by Baku of being a member of an illegal armed group that committed ethnic cleansing in Karabakh’s Khojaly region in December 1991.

Khachatryan was sentenced to fifteen years in prison last November.

In November, Yerevan said that in addition to the above eight former Artsakh officials, a total of fifty-five Armenian POWs were being held by Baku, including six civilians, forty-0ne soldiers. One month later, in a prisoner swap, Azerbaijan released thirty-two Armenians mostly captured in late 2020 while Armenia released two Azerbaijani soldiers held since April.

Whether the ICRC has access to these Armenian military and civilian detainees is also unknown.

Photo: AFP / FABRICE COFFRINI

Update: The ICRC office in Armenia confirmed the above news, referring Hetq to its Facebook post citing: "At the end of February, ICRC representatives again visited all the Armenian detainees notified by the Azerbaijani authorities. The detainees were met in private and were given the possibility to exchange family news."

Whether the ICRC reps visited Armenian detainees  other than the eight detained former Artsakh officials remains unclear.

The office responded: “Our work in detention is among the most sensitive activities, and being mandated by the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC keeps it as discreet as possible in the public domain, acting in the best interest of protected persons (in this case, the detained).”