Investigative Measures Conducted At Karabakh Representative Office In Yerevan

On December 11, investigative measures were conducted at the de-facto Karabakh representative office in Yerevan as part of an ongoing criminal case. During the day, Tigran Abrahamyan, the secretary of the "I Have the Honor" faction, stated that officers had begun searching the Karabakh representative office only one day after parliamentary hearings on the return of Karabakh residents. Artak Beglaryan, the former de-facto State Minister, stated that these actions were part of a broader and long-standing campaign targeting Karabakh state institutions, and that the hearings in parliament had simply provided an additional pretext. He added that, without significant public pressure, the authorities would eventually confiscate the office building, questioning the independence of the courts.

Beglaryan commented on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent statements in Germany, in which the Prime Minister proposed that Armenia could give up the issue of return to separatist Karabakh if Azerbaijan abandoned references to "Western Azerbaijan". Beglaryan emphasized that Nikol Pashinyan could not renounce the right of return for the people of Karabakh. According to him, only the people of Karabakh could decide whether to return. He stated that it was "completely unacceptable" for the Armenian Cabinet to adopt such a position and accused the authorities of "putting the rights up for sale," while wrongly equating the return of Karabakh Armenians with the "return" of Azerbaijanis. He stressed that the situations were incomparable in terms of causes of displacement, compensation, timing, scale, and legal context. Beglaryan stated that, to some extent, one could discuss the return of Armenians from Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis who lived in Armenia. He added that the International Court’s ruling applied to the entire international community, including Armenia, concluding that the Armenian government was effectively declaring its refusal to comply with the ruling and was "justifying the Genocide".

Later in the day, officers of the Investigative Committee left the Karabakh representative office. Nzhdeh Iskandaryan informed reporters that law enforcement had been searching for documents related to the investment fund and had attempted to open a safe with a saw. He underlined that no documents were present, as all materials had already been submitted to the Investigative Committee. He stated that it was evident from the outset that the search was linked to the previous day’s hearings and that this message was clearly being sent by the Armenian authorities. Iskandaryan added that further actions could not be ruled out. He reiterated the position that the Karabakh conflict could not be resolved without addressing the issue of self-determination for more than 120,000 residents of Karabakh and noted that they would continue their struggle.

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