By Sabina Mammadli
Baku has pledged to arrest the leader of the self-proclaimed regime in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, Araik Arutyunyan, soon
The head of the investigation department at the Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General's Office, Nemat Avazov, made the remarks.
Araik Harutyunyan
Arayik Harutyunyan, the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh" group's leader, will be arrested soon, and an investigation will be launched in Azerbaijan. Harutyunyan is charged with committing four terrorist attacks against civilians in Azerbaijan’s Ganja city in October 2020, Avazov noted.
“The terrorist attacks were committed from Armenia’s territory. As a result, 26 Azerbaijani civilians were killed and 175 were injured. Harutyunyan claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on his social network account on October 4,” he said.
Avazov underlined that criminal cases had been initiated based on various articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code and Harutyunyan had been put on the wanted fugitives list.
The fact that Harutyunyan has not been brought to trial is temporary, he added.
“I think that in accordance with the international convention, Harutyunyan will be detained by the investigative team and handed over for launching an investigation in a short period of time,” he added.
Sumgayit
In a separate statement, the head of the investigation department noted that work is underway to continue the search for persons accused of rioting in Azerbaijan's Sumgayit city in 1988.
According to the document presented to the General Assembly by Azerbaijan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Yashar Aliyev, the official investigation confirmed that the February 1988 events were planned and carried out by Armenian extremist organizations to undermine Azerbaijan's authority and conceal Armenia's illegal occupation intentions.
"In 1988, Eduard Grigoryan, the organizer of the events in Sumgayit, and others were put on the wanted list. Currently, operational and search measures are being carried out in this case. Work is underway to bring these people to the investigation," Avazov added.
A reminder that in March 2020, the Azerbaijani government submitted a document to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly in connection with the events in Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit city as of February 1988.
As a result of riots in Sumgayit city, 32 people were killed on the night of February 28, 1988, 26 of them are Armenians, six – Azerbaijanis.
On the night of February 28, 1988, 32 people were killed as a result of riots in Sumgayit, 26 of whom were Armenians and six Azerbaijanis.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva previously described the 1988 killing of 32 people in Sumgayit as a well-planned provocation against Azerbaijan.
As a result of the military aggression by Armenia, 100 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, including 12 children and 27 women. As many as 454 people were injured, including 35 children. Some 181 children lost one parent, five children lost both parents, one family died. In total, 12,292 residential and non-residential buildings and 288 vehicles were damaged.
A criminal case has been initiated into the death of every civilian in Azerbaijan caused by the Armenian terror, and appeals have been sent to international courts and organizations.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10, 2020, brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.
The peace agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions and urged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historic Shusha city.