Vagif Khachatryan is Already in a Hospital in Baku, Says Artsakh State Minister

Vagif Khachatryan, a 68-year-old resident of Artsakh who was abducted the day before in the Lachin corridor, is now in one of the hospitals in Baku. He has been visited there, but it has not been possible to establish contact with his family members. This was reported to Hetq by Gurgen Nersisyan, the State Minister of the Republic of Artsakh.

Below is the Q&A between the media outlet and the state minister:

Question: Yesterday, you published information through the ICRC about the detention of an Artsakh citizen by Azerbaijan while transferring patients from Artsakh to Armenia, stating that an ICRC representative was with our citizen, while shortly thereafter, the Ombudsman of Artsakh issued a statement claiming that our citizen was abducted. It seems there is a contradiction in your statements; how do you explain this situation?

Answer: Before making a statement about the incident, I was in constant contact with the representatives of the ICRC office in Stepanakert and with the daughter of Vagif Khachatryan, who accompanied him and witnessed the events. At the time of my announcement, I was informed that the Azerbaijanis had restricted Vagif Khachatryan's freedom and had separated him from the ICRC representative, taking him some distance away from the checkpoint. However, shortly thereafter, I was again informed that the ICRC representative had been sent back to the checkpoint from that location, and Vagif Khachatryan had been abducted and taken in an unknown direction. This had already been stated by the Ombudsman of Artsakh. It follows from this that there is not actually a contradiction but rather a sequential description of events.

Question: What information do you currently have about the whereabouts and health condition of the abducted Vagif Khachatryan?

Answer: Yesterday, I, the Ombudsman of Artsakh, and the Minister of Internal Affairs had a meeting with the head of the ICRC office in Stepanakert, Carlos Morazani, both separately and with Vagif Khachatryan's relatives. Subsequently, a meeting was also organized with the commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces in Artsakh, including the relatives. In both cases, assurances were provided that everything would be done to return our citizen, but we have heard many such unproductive assurances and are now waiting for results. At the end of the day, the ICRC informed us that Vagif Khachatryan is already in one of the hospitals in Baku, where he has been visited, but contact with family members could not be established.

Another meeting is scheduled to take place today at the ICRC office in Stepanakert; we will try to understand what we have now and what steps are planned to be taken moving forward.