15:45, 4 August 2023
YEREVAN, AUGUST4, ARMENPRESS/ARTSAKHPRESS. 68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan, who was being transferred from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) to Armenia for treatment by the International Committee of the Red Cross, has not contacted any of his family members since his abduction by Azerbaijan on July 29, Vagif Khachatryan's daughter, Tsovinar Khachatryan, told Artsakhpress.
"We go to the Stepanakert office of the Red Cross several times a day, and my sister to their office in Yerevan to find out any information. They tell us they have no information. They say that they are negotiating to see my father, but so far it has been unsuccessful," Tsovinar Khachatryan said.
The representative of the Red Cross called only at midnight on July 29 and informed that Vagif Khachatryan was in a hospital in Baku, where he was connected to artificial ventilation machine.
According to Tsovinar Khachatryan, her father has health problems and she once again urged the international institutions to respond to their requests and urgently return her father to the homeland in order to save his life.
The Office of the Human Rights Defender of Azerbaijan published a statement yesterday claiming that Ombudsperson Sabina Aliyeva met Vagif Khachatryan personally. According to the report, Khachatryan allegedly "expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan state for the treatment, conditions of detention and the opportunity to contact his family." But the family had actually no contact at all with Khachatryan, whom even the Red Cross hasn’t visited after July 29.
On August 2, prominent Armenian attorney Siranush Sahakyan ruled out due process in Azerbaijan regarding Vagif Khachatryan. She said that the kidnapping of Vagif Khachatryan by Azerbaijan constitutes extraordinary rendition in terms of international law.
The Nagorno-Karabakh resident’s kidnapping has been condemned by the Armenian foreign ministry as a war crime.
Vagif Khachatryan’s daughter revealed earlier this week that the Azeri border guards threatened the ICRC staff with force at the illegal checkpoint in Lachin Corridor. She denied the charges against her father and asked for international support to achieve his release.
