Six more Armenians arrested over escalation on border with Azerbaijan

Yerevan has said that the number of Armenians charged with involvement in the September border escalation with Azerbaijan has reached 16, six of whom have already been arrested.

Perch Ayvazyan, the chairman of the General Military Investigative Department of Armenia’s Investigative Committee, made the statement on the air of the Public TV Company (1TV), Caliber.Az reports, quoting Armenian media.

Earlier, Armenian Investigative Committee Chairman Argishti Kyaramyan stated that 11 Armenian military servicemen are under trial in the criminal case related to the military actions on the conditional Armenian-Azerbaijani border in September 2022.

"Six of those criminal proceedings have already been completed and sent to the court with an indictment, the preliminary investigation of the rest is continuing," Ayvazyan said.

According to Ayvazyan, the charges mainly concern the non-fulfilment of official duties during the battle, failure to appear on time at the place of service to evade it, and violation of the rules of military service.

More than 600 people, including close relatives of the victims, were identified as victims and interrogated. A total of over 1,500 witnesses were also interrogated.

More than 70 expertise examinations have been carried out and over 100 incident sites have been inspected in 12 communities of several regions of Armenia.

Ayvazyan also said that the country’s Defence Ministry and relevant investigations revealed that Armenia lost a total of 224 personnel in the September escalation, with three servicemen going missing.