The Artsakh National Security Service, commenting on Azerbaijani media reports that a resident of the Republic of Artsakh had met with Azerbaijani “environmentalists” blocking the Stepanakert-Goris highway and asked them for food, has detailed that those claims are false and the corresponding footage is staged. Toros Ghazaryan, a resident of the Republic of Artsakh, came under the control of Azerbaijan’s armed forces in the administrative territory of the town of Martuni.
According to the statement of the Artsakh Republic National Security Service, on January 1, 2023, Toros Ghazaryan, a resident of the town of Martuni in the Martuni district of the Republic of Artsakh, who is engaged in livestock breeding, had not returned home from the pasture, and search operations were initiated in connection with this. Since there was a high probability that, having health problems, he could have become disoriented and crossed into territory under the control of Azerbaijan’s armed forces, this was also reported to the leadership of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh in order to obtain information from the Azerbaijani side. From January 1 until today, the Azerbaijani side had not only not confirmed, but had denied that T. Ghazaryan was in their possession.
“In order not to endanger the life and health of our citizen, we continued negotiations with the Azerbaijani side through the mediation of the peacekeepers without publicizing the matter, as a result of which Azerbaijan today confirmed the fact of T. Ghazaryan’s presence with them and handed him over to the Russian peacekeepers in the blocked section of the Stepanekert-Goris highway, giving the matter other shades for political and propaganda considerations and providing desirable interpretations and assessments.
T. Ghazaryan, handed over to the Artsakh side, has already been examined, and doctors have assessed his health condition as satisfactory. Within the framework of the criminal proceedings initiated by the Artsakh Republic law enforcement bodies, all measures will be taken to fully clarify the circumstances of citizen T. Ghazaryan’s coming under the control of Azerbaijan’s armed forces.
Today’s staging by the Azerbaijani side once again proves that their goal is not to face reality and accept it, but to mislead the international community and domestic audiences with false theses and propaganda materials,” the statement said.
