Posters conmemorating two Armenian prisoners on the streets of Yerevan. The total number of detainees remains unknown. Credit: Edgar Kamalyan

By Anush Ghavalyan
YEREVAN, Armenia, Jan 25 2024 (IPS)

On July 29, 2023, Vagif Khachatryan, a 68-year-old Armenian retiree, woke up early in Nagorno Karabakh —a self-proclaimed republic in the Caucasus region—to travel to Armenia. He needed to undergo delicate heart surgery.

Despite the pressing medical emergency, it was not an easy decision. The only road that connected Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world had been cut off for seven months by the Azerbaijani army. Even if he was travelling in an International Committee of the Red Cross car, Khachatryan knew he could face trouble.

He was arrested that day by the Azerbaijani border guard service. Four months later, a military court in Baku handed him a 15-year sentence for crimes allegedly committed during a war fought more than 30 years ago.

Vagif Khachatryan is yet another victim of a conflict that has its roots in the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Armenians remained the majority in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the enclave was officially on the territory of the newborn Republic of Azerbaijan.

A war was already unravelling in Karabakh. The Armenian victory also led to the forcible displacement of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis. In September 2020, the latter launched an offensive through which they took over two-thirds of the territory under Armenian control.

But there were still more than 100,000 Armenians left.

In December 2022, Baku blocked the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the rest of the world, depriving its inhabitants of the most basic supplies including food and medicines. It was that lack of medical assistance that pushed Vagif Khachatryan to his fate seven months later.

With Khachatryan already in prison, the blockade on Nagorno Karabakh was lifted in September 2023 in the wake of a new Azeri attack. The road was opened so that the Armenians remaining in the enclave fled en masse to Armenia.

Senior international bodies like the European Union Parliament accused Azerbaijan of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” against the Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh. Today, Karabakhis are restarting from scratch in Armenia, the Khachatryans among those.

“The fact that my father has a heart disease gives me hope that he will not be tortured in Azerbaijani custody,” Vera Khachatryan told IPS by telephone from Jermuk, 170 kilometres southeast of Yerevan.

Her father’s arrest, she said, has also had an impact on her mother. “She suffers from new health and psychological problems which only add to those derived from forced displacement,” explained the displaced woman.

On September 28, Karabaj authorities issued a decree dissolving the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh Republic as of January 1, 2024.

Political leaders of Nagorno Karabakh during one of the last masses celebrated in the enclave. Eight of them are today in Azerbaijani prisons. Credit: Edgar Kamalyan / IPS

Secrecy

On December 13, 2023, a prisoner exchange took place: Azerbaijan released 32 Armenian soldiers in exchange for the last two Azerbaijani soldiers under Armenian custody. Armenia’s support for Azerbaijan to host the United Nations Climate Summit in Baku was also part of the deal.

Both sides described it as “a sign of goodwill.”

“Azerbaijan uses the prisoners´ issue as a political tool to put pressure on Armenia or to obtain something in return,” Siranush Sahakyan, representative of the Armenian prisoners’ interests at the European Court of Human Rights told IPS by phone.

“No repatriation conducted by Baku other than the prisoner swap was held under an amnesty or any other legal procedure,” stressed Sahakyan.

Armenia claims that more than 100 prisoners of war and civilians remain in Azerbaijan, including three former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh, the speaker of parliament and members of the cabinet. Baku says the total number of Armenian prisoners in its custody is 23.

Other than the contradicting figures, their state also poses a major source of concern. In a March 2021 report, Human Rights Watch denounced that the Armenian prisoners of war suffered abuse in Azerbaijani custody and called on Baku to release “all remaining prisoners of war and civilians.”

Faced with Baku’s inaction, Yerevan appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Protest in Stepanakert (the capital of Nagorno Karabakh) after the closure of the road that connected the enclave with Armenia, in December 2022. After nine months of blockade and an Azerbaijani attack, all Karabakh residents fled to Armenia. Credit: Edgar Kamalyan / IPS

“Azerbaijan is obliged to submit a report on arbitrarily detained senior officials to the ECHR before the end of January 2024,” Hasmik Samvelyan, spokesperson for the Armenian Representation for International Legal Affairs, reminded IPS in a telephone conversation.

For the time being, the International Committee of the Red Cross is the only independent body that has access to Armenian prisoners.

“Our representatives have visited all the captives detained in Baku and checked the conditions in which they are held,” Zara Amatuni, ICRC communications officer in Armenia, told IPS by telephone.

Several of the prisoners’ relatives confirmed to IPS that they had the opportunity to speak with them. The ICRC mediates to facilitate communication by telephone every 30 to 40 days. The organisation avoided giving more details after appealing to the importance of confidentiality.

“We present our observations only to the competent authorities,” the ICRC press officer stressed to IPS.

Repatriated prisoners have also consistently refused to talk to journalists about the conditions of their imprisonment, and that´s also the Armenian state´s policy. Many see it as a way to avoid triggering a reaction from Azerbaijan that could worsen the imprisonment conditions.

Families fleeing Nagorno Karabakh after the Azerbaijani attack in September 2023. Several political organisations and human rights defenders accused Azerbaijan of launching “a campaign of ethnic cleansing” against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Credit: Siranush Sargsyan / IPS

Waiting for justice

During an international forum on the future of Nagorno Karabakh held on December 6 in Baku, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev declared that the Armenian prisoners “are waiting for Azerbaijani justice to rule.”

The recent wave of repression against the media and any voice critical of the Government does not invite hope. Last December, Amnesty International denounced the arrests of at least six independent Azerbaijani journalists in just one month on “fabricated” charges.

In its latest world freedom report, the Freedom House claimed Azerbaijan is one of the 57 countries classified as “not free” out of the 159 studied. The Washington-based NGO denounced “numerous arbitrary arrests and detentions”. It also described Azerbaijan’s judiciary as “corrupt and subordinate to the executive.”

Another of those waiting for Azerbaijani justice to rule is Vicken Euljeckjian. This Lebanese who also has Armenian nationality was captured along with Maral Najarian —another Lebanese Armenian— by Azerbaijani soldiers while driving from Yerevan to Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10, 2020, a day after the Russian-brokered ceasefire was announced.

Four months after their arrest, Beirut secured Najarian´s release, but not Euljeckjian´s. The latter was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2021. His name, however, appeared on the list of prisoners to be swapped on December 13, 2023, but a last-minute surprise prevented it.

“After three years of separation, pain and despair, we were very excited to hear that he would finally be released. Suddenly, his name was replaced with that of another prisoner three hours before the exchange,” Vicken´s wife Linda Euljeckjian recalled to IPS by phone from Beirut.

Hoping to ease the process, Linda and her daughter travelled to Yerevan to meet with Armenian officials. But the latter could do little, so the family also approached senior Lebanese officials.

“After pressure from the local media, the Lebanese government appears to be interested in discussing the issue of my husband’s repatriation with Azerbaijani officials,” said Linda.

While she waits for the release of her husband, the issue of Armenian prisoners of war and civilians in Azerbaijan remains among those to be settled in a conflict inherited from the 20th century.

Two among the several foreign players currently training with the Nagorno-Karabakh squad. Credit: Anush Ghavalyan/IPS

By Anush Ghavalyan
STEPANAKERT, Nagorno Karabakh, Sep 2 2022 (IPS)

“This year the weather in Nagorno-Karabakh is warmer than in my home country, Senegal,” jokes Sow Ababacar, a 22-year-old footballer from the local stadium in Stepanakert, the capital of this Caucasus enclave. Although he once dreamed of playing for the Senegalese national team, the midfielder is currently training with the disputed territory´s national squad.

“Time flies,” says Sow. “It’s already been three years since I arrived.”

Also called Artsakh by the Armenians, Nagorno-Karabakh is a self-proclaimed republic inhabited by an Armenian majority seeking recognition of its independence from Azerbaijan. It’s a territory internationally recognized as part of this country which lies in the southern Caucasus region, very much between Europe and Asia.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a self-proclaimed republic inhabited by an Armenian majority seeking recognition of its independence from Azerbaijan. It's a territory internationally recognized as part of this country which lies in the southern Caucasus region, very much between Europe and Asia

In September 2020, Baku launched an offensive with which sought to seal forever the longest conflict since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was a landslide victory for Azerbaijan. Following the Russian-brokered ceasefire in November 2020, Moscow deployed its peacekeepers to territory still under Armenian control.

Although reconstruction is still under way all across the enclave there are hardly any foreign workers and it’s not easy to come across foreigners in the streets of Stepanakert these days. Only Armenian and Russian citizens are allowed to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh, with the corridor connecting this enclave with Armenia under the control of Russian peacekeepers. They have the last word to decide on who gets in. Thus, the Senegalese footballer knows that he attracts a lot of attention in a city where the vast majority of the population is Armenian.

“The attitude towards blacks is the same almost everywhere, not just here. Wherever you go, there will always be people calling you ¨monkey´” Sow tells IPS. It hurts, he admits, but he has learned to cope with it. “Children don’t do that, adults do. I think the problem is that they don’t understand what they’re doing,” explains the young Senegalese.

Connecting with the local people is also far from easy in a deeply conservative society. “I liked a girl and she liked me too, but her parents were against our relationship and we broke up without even trying,” recalls Sow. He swears he hasn’t looked at the local girls ever since. “It’s impossible.”

“The people are friendly and the food is very tasty here, but when it comes to women, we can only watch,” Valdo Junior, a 27-year-old Cameroonian tells IPS. He adds that young players find local women attractive, but that they rarely jump into a relationship.

Junior moved to Nagorno-Karabakh after the 2020 war. “My family knows that I am somewhere in the Caucasus, but I am not sure they can find it on the map,” explains the defenseman. He misses his family, but training and distance are two major obstacles to visiting more often.

Starting from scratch

The team is getting set for the CONIFA (Confederation of Independent Football Associations) championship to be held later this year. It is an umbrella football federation for all associations outside of FIFA as well as the only international championship that they can play under their flag since the unrecognized status does not allow the Artsakh national team to reach FIFA.

Actually, Nagorno-Karabakh hosted the last CONIFA European Football Cup in 2019 (the COVID pandemics made it impossible for the next two to take place). Back then, South Ossetia won the tournament after scoring the only goal in the final against Western Armenia.

“We are waiting for CONIFA to set the final date for the championship to finalize the process of obtaining Nagorno-Karabakh citizenship for foreigners,” Mher Avanesyan, the president of the Artsakh Football Federation told IPS from his office in downtown Stepanakert. According to the official, the players are not officially part of the team but they´re training before the international sports event takes place.

Ababacar and Junior are two among a total of eight black players currently playing with different Armenian clubs, and they are not the only foreigners: English, Spanish, French and Russian can also be heard during the training sessions.

“Language differences are not an obstacle to making a good game as a team,” Artashes Adamyan, the coach, tells IPS. “The black players not only understand the local dialect, they can even speak it with some fluency,” he claims. Adamyan can barely hide his pride when he talks about players of color.

“They are an integral part and driving force of the team. We have created all the necessary conditions for them to play and stay in Artsakh.”

The signing of over a dozen foreign players by a de facto republic still struggling to recover from a bloody and still too recent war may look frivolous but, as in many other parts of the world, football here is also much more than a mere sporting event. From his office in the center of Stepanakert, Daniel Mkrtchyan, head of the Sports Department of the Nagorno-Karabakh Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, wanted to highlight the importance of the Nagorno-Karabakh squad.

“The CONIFA European Cup held here in 2019 brought thousands of people from all over the world. Also, many international journalists came to Artsakh to cover the event. Taking part in any international sporting event means making Artsakh known to the world,” Mkrtchyan explained to IPS .

The 2020 war, however, had a devastating impact. Over 10.000 people died in a conflict after which Armenians lost two thirds of the territory formerly under their control. Key infractructures were also severely damaged and Armenians in the enclave have to cope with gas and power cuts almost daily.

“We also lost stadiums, sports schools and infrastructure in regions such as Hadrut and Shushi (both today under Azerbaijani control) and in some places we need to do reconstruction works. For example, in Martuni, the football stadium was bombed in 2020. It took time for the athletes to get back in shape, as they missed training for half a year due to the war and its aftermath,” lamented Mkrtchyan.

“This year we will make history!” blurts enthusiastically Samvel Adamyan, a retired soccer player who has brought his 9-year-old grandson to the stadium to watch the training. The child can’t take his eyes off the players as he waits for the ball to go out of bounds so he can return it to his football stars.

Outside the stadium, there are not many leisure options. “You have to go to Yerevan to have fun,” blurts Tobi Jnohope, a 24-year-old defenseman born in Largo (Florida). He recently moved to Nagorno-Karabakh from Palmese, an Italian football club. The Afroamerican tells IPS he feels the love and recognition of the people when they ask for a photo with him in the streets. And there’s also the surprise element.

“You can get a whole bus of people staring at you with their mouths open. Isn’t that funny?,” he laughs.