On July 11, the separatist junta in Khankendi sentenced a local Armenian named Arzik Arutyunyan to 10 years in prison for “treason”. After the 44-day war, similar incidents often occur in the separatist institution. The representatives of the terrorist regime, knowing that they are living their last days, increased total pressure on ordinary citizens as well as media representatives and began to look for threats to their security in everyone. Serious obstacles are being created for the provision of information to the Armenian media covering the events taking place there, and obstacles are being created for the work of local websites operating in Khankendi. Especially after the start of operation of Azerbaijan’s border-crossing point in Lachin, it has become common for the regime’s armed groups to raid media offices and editorial offices, seeing that its downfall is approaching. For example, some time ago in Khankendi, the employee of “CivilNet” website of Armenia Ayk Kazaryan was attacked and arrested with similar motives. (source).

According to the information provided, Kazaryan was arrested 2 months ago by the “security service” of the separatists. From that time until today, even though his relatives and his lawyer wanted to meet with the journalist, they were not given such an opportunity. According to the information in the Armenian media, Kazaryan used to transmit analytical report information to international organizations regarding the events taking place in the South Caucasus countries. It is interesting that Kazaryan is said to have taken this information from sources on the Internet. In this case, if a journalist uses open sources, why does he become a target of “security agencies”? Most likely, the main reason is the social and political situation in Khankendi, the social and criminal situation of the population, the publicizing of information about unsolved crimes, the arbitrariness of “state authorities” and their sponsored gangs, and the fear of going beyond the borders of the territory where the junta has taken root. In this way, the criminal regime also threatens its own citizens and is used to intimidate people like Kazaryan.

The separatists are doing their best to ensure that information about the events in Khankendi and the discontent of the local population does not become relevant and does not lead to public discussions. The situation has even reached the point where the regime representatives have banned restaurant and café owners from sharing their services and offers on their social network accounts. That’s because the activity of self-serving public catering facilities overturns the “blockade” propaganda they spread to the world.

The former presidents of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, as well as the blogger Roman Baghdasaryan, who is in opposition to the criminal group in Karabakh, regularly share information about the criminal acts of the separatists. According to the information shared by the blogger with reference to “Республика Армения” telegram channel, local businessmen and people who disagree with the current policy, including military personnel, have been killed or arrested in Karabakh in the last 28 years on the orders of the leaders of the criminal junta. During these years, 1078-1080 entrepreneurs were either killed or tortured by criminals in Khankendi (reference). Some of them were detained in the prison in Shusha, the fate of others remains unknown.

Apparently, the representatives of the criminal organization committed illegal acts not only against Azerbaijanis, but also against local Armenians, and although they carried out pseudo-propaganda about the “rule of a democratic environment” in the territories under the control of terrorists, in reality they killed small entrepreneurs who did not comply with the system’s requirements. Baghdasaryan believes that Vitaliy Balasanyan, one of Khojaly executioners who was arrested and released recently, is also involved in such acts (reference). Even in the 90s of the last century, there were bloody conflicts between the leaders of the separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh. For example, Samvel Babayan, the so-called “defense minister” of the so-called organization that now claims to be in opposition to Araik Harutyunyan, just a few years after the First Karabakh war, shot Arkady Gukasyan, who was the “foreign minister” and then one of the “presidents”, in the legs and was arrested. Bagdasaryan writes: “There is no life in Karabakh, it is a shame. Only drug addicts and murderers are in power. Today, not even the police can protect themselves from such robbers” (reference). According to the blogger, the separatist government is entirely dependent on local thugs.

In the letter written by Armenian citizen Kristina Vardanyan to the separatists’ “minister of internal affairs” Karen Sargsyan, such criminal acts are mentioned and it is stated that nothing has been done to solve them. Vardanyan’s son took part in the 44-day war, and there is no information about whether he died or was injured. However, Vardanyan writes in his letter that he often communicates with those who lost their children in the war. “I can’t look without pain how your people, thugs beat lawyers and threaten journalists with death on your instructions. I did not expect anything else from you, because I always communicate with the parents of the victims, they tell me a lot about the period of your life immediately after the war,” he wrote. Vardanyan openly accuses the “minister” of the process of searching for missing Armenian servicemen:

1. Many parents claim on social networks that the employees of your service often bribed them to continue searching for bodies they could not find. How did your ministry make money off of parental misery? Desperately searching for the body of their son, the parents wanted to bury him and your subordinates took advantage of this situation;
2. Parents of the victims were often told that the corpse was far from the front and the Azerbaijanis did not allow them to take it. However, parents were told that it was possible to solve this issue with peacekeepers in exchange for money. In fact, the bribe takers are your friends;
3. Karen Sargsyan, I hope you will answer my questions. Because I have the right to ask these questions and receive their answers. If it suddenly turns out that you deliberately hid dead bodies after the war and negotiated to hand over the victims to their parents, then I will personally ask that your name be written in the history of Armenia as a traitor to the Armenian people (reference).