The Baku military court handed down a harsh sentence, sending Araik Harutyunyan and a group of former high-profile officials of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh to prison for life. According to Azertag, among those convicted were also the former Minister of Defense of the NKR Levon Mnatsakanyan, former Speaker of Parliament David Ishkhanyan, former Chief of Army Staff David Manukyan, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs David Babayan. Additionally, Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Saakyan, who also previously held the positions of president of the NKR, were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The charges against the defendants include preparation and conduct of aggressive actions, war crimes, genocide, terrorism and its financing, as well as violent seizure of power. All the accused denied their guilt.
The detention of the former leaders of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh occurred at the end of 2023 as a result of a military operation by Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh, with a predominantly Armenian population, declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991. As a result of the conflict in 1992-1993, the region came under the control of the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan regained part of the lost territories, and following the military actions of 2023, Nagorno-Karabakh came completely under the control of Azerbaijan, leading to a mass exodus of the Armenian population.
On August 8, a meeting took place in Washington, supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, where Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev initialed an agreement on peace and interstate relations. However, the peace treaty has not yet been signed, as Azerbaijan demands changes to the Armenian constitution regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan hopes that an agreement will be reached in the coming months.
