Captives Totaling Nearly 150 from Shirak Region, Including Officials

Residents from various communities in the Shirak region report that their relatives have been trapped near Khztaberd in Artsakh for three days and have now been taken captive. A resident of Shirak, R. T., told Sputnik Armenia that her son-in-law, Haykaz Koryuni Hovhannisyan (born in 1992), along with his volunteer companions, had been trapped for over three days, and yesterday they witnessed the group surrendering to Azerbaijani forces.

The last communication with her son-in-law was on Sunday after 12 PM. “He said, ‘We were told to come down, no vehicle can go up, we will replace you,’ and after that, there was no further information, and they sent a picture that they had surrendered to Azerbaijan,” she stated.

According to the source, the majority of the captives—around 150 people—are residents of the Shirak region, particularly from the Sarapat community. The Shirak volunteers were captured in the Khztaberd area. Among those captured are local officials, including Vahram Saghatelyan, the administrative head of the Meghrashat community in the enlarged Amasia community, and Narek Nikoyan, the deputy head of the Ani enlarged community and the nephew of Samvel Nikoyan, along with other administrative leaders and school directors.

It is noteworthy that the Artsakh Defense Army reported that last evening, contact was lost under unspecified circumstances with the personnel stationed at several combat positions directed towards the villages of Hin Tagher and Khztaberd in Hadrut. Search operations continued throughout the night and into the morning. Efforts are being made through the mediation of the Russian peacekeeping forces to determine the likelihood of the Armenian military personnel's captivity.