VIDEO: Where the Enemy Ambushed Armenian Police Officers

‘Hetq’ has pinpointed the location where on March 5, Azerbaijani saboteurs killed three employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh and injured one. 

Recall that in the morning, the Artsakh Defense Army issued a statement announcing that at around 10:00 AM, an Azerbaijani sabotage group targeted and opened fire on the vehicle carrying personnel from the Passports and Visas Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a place called ‘Khoypalou’.

Shortly after, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the names of the police officers who had been killed as a result of enemy actions: Lieutenant Colonel Armen Mayori Babayan, Major Davit Valerii Danielyan, and Lieutenant Ararat Telmani Gasparyan. Lieutenant Davit Ashoti Hovsepyan sustained a gunshot wound to the chest. The Artsakh Ministry of Health later reported that the injured police officer is in intensive care under the supervision of doctors, and his condition is assessed as seriously stable.

It took official Baku some time to package the facts in a favorable lie to present to external and internal audiences. According to the Azerbaijanis, they had operational information about the alleged transfer of weapons and personnel from Armenia to Artsakh. However, the Aliyev propaganda machine has rushed so much that it has entangled itself in its own web of lies by claiming that the military cargo and personnel coming from Armenia to Artsakh are transferred along the ‘Khankendi (Stepanakert)-Khalfali-Turshsu (Lisagor)’ dirt road.

The fact is that the ‘UAZ’ vehicle occupied by the Armenian police officers was just leaving Stepanakert heading toward the Shushi region (in other words, towards Artsakh-Armenia and not Armenia-Artsakh), making it impossible for military cargo and personnel to be transferred from Armenia to Artsakh in that vehicle. Moreover, as noted by the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “the official version put forward by Azerbaijan is absurd; they have not presented and cannot present any evidence or justification supporting that version.” According to the Armenian MFA, the vehicle of the Artsakh police officers, leaving Stepanakert for the villages of Hin Shen and Mets Shen (in the Berdadzor sub-region), only contained service documents and their standard weapons.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense claimed that, for the purpose of verifying the aforementioned operational information, Azerbaijani army units attempted to stop and check Armenian transportation vehicles, but the Armenian side opened fire, resulting in casualties and injuries on both sides. Naturally, the Azerbaijanis have no evidence that several vehicles have crossed, or that Armenians fired first. If such evidence existed, Baku's propaganda machine would have disseminated it without delay, but in this case, the guilty party continues to lie.

Also noteworthy is the falsehood alleging that Azerbaijanis attempted to stop the Armenian vehicle. Aside from the fact that they did not do such a thing, having instead simply killed the Armenian police officers, they also have no jurisdiction to stop and check any Armenian vehicle according to the November 9, 2020 statement.

In contrast to the Azerbaijanis, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Artsakh has presented photographs and videos, with the latter showing how the Azerbaijani military, who killed the Armenian police officers, again shot at the vehicle before fleeing, tossing some papers aside.

“It should be emphasized that the self-defense and deterrent actions of the police officers and the soldiers of the Defense Army in the adjacent position also resulted in casualties and injuries on the Azerbaijani side, who were driven back to their initial positions,” stated the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Later, a video released by the Artsakh information headquarters shows that after returning fire from the Armenian side, the Azerbaijanis flee, suffering casualties and injuries, and are only able to evacuate them after the arrival of Russian peacekeepers.

By correlating the video with the map of the area, ‘Hetq’ has localized the site of the Azerbaijani crime. It should be noted that prior to this, the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicated the route taken by the police officers, marking ‘Khoypalou’ as the incident site, which corresponds to the village of Gaybalishe (Gaybali) in the Shushi region.

In fact, however, Gaybalishe has no connection to ‘Khoypalou.’ The Azerbaijani crime occurred near the former Khalfali and Dyukanlar settlements of the Shushi region, 3.5 km directly from Gaybalishe, and 6 km southwest from the Kırkjan (Kirkjan) neighborhood of Stepanakert.

It should be noted that the crime scene is more than 1 km away from the area controlled by the Azerbaijanis. By area, we mean the left side of the Goris-Stepanakert highway near the Shushi-Karin Tak intersection. This forested area is home to the ‘Isahak Spring.’ Neighbouring hills were occupied by the enemy after the 2020 war. One of their forward positions is 1.05 km and another is 1.3 km away from the crime scene.

This means that the Azerbaijanis, leaving their positions, moved toward the Stepanakert-Lisagor dirt road, which can currently be considered an alternative to the asphalt highway blocked by Baku's puppet 'eco-activists' on the Stepanakert-Karin Tak-Lisagor route. The saboteurs descended into the gorge of the Varaqan River, then emerged onto the dirt road and, as can be seen from the photographs, aimed and opened fire on the Armenian police officers’ ‘UAZ’ vehicle (the enemy also fired from the sides of the interior of the vehicle, with the intent to kill all persons inside).

The Armenian side has already declared that this is a premeditated provocation authorized by the high command of Azerbaijan.

Examining the map, one can see that the saboteurs selected the particular section where the dirt road approaches the Varaqan River as closely as possible, with their distance being only 30 meters. In other words, after the diversion, they could quickly cross the gorge and enter the forest from whence they came. On the other hand, in this section, the road bends to the right, but the adjacent rock (1) blocks the driver’s line of sight, which is a good opportunity for the ambushers. While on the left side of the road, across the river, the rocky plateau (3, 4) allows for observing and monitoring traffic in this area, which is exactly what the Azerbaijanis did before hitting the Armenian ‘UAZ’.