“GEGHARD”
SCIENTIFIC ANALYTICAL
FOUNDATION
2025
2025
2025-06-26
Photo by Sergei Bobylev: A residential building damaged by Azerbaijani shelling in Stepanakert, October 3, 2020
In the civilized world, states engaged in war with one another try to adhere to certain written and unwritten moral norms. However, when the military becomes the sole pillar for implementing the ruling authorities' domestic and foreign political ambitions, the armed forces become a tool for settling scores with other ethnic communities, even in times of peace.
Soldiers of the Azerbaijani army, who celebrate June 26 as the Day of the Armed Forces, have consistently stood out for committing atrocities against Armenian peaceful civilians.
In recent decades, violence by servicemen of the Azerbaijani army against Armenian civilians can be conditionally categorized as follows:
This classification allows for systematic organization and study of incidents of violence that occurred during different periods, based on situational and chronological characteristics.
Killings or violence against civilians taken captive during “peaceful” conditions
Azerbaijani servicemen regularly subjected to torture those who accidentally crossed the interstate border.
In 2010, Azerbaijani military policy detained 20 years old civilian Manvel Saribekyan, who got lost in the Tavush region of Armenia and appeared in Azerbaijan because of fog. Shortly after, he was killed in Azerbaijani prison. Azerbaijan presented his death as suicide.
In July 2014, saboteurs crossed the state border of Nagorno-Karabakh, kidnapped, and killed Smbat Tsakanyan, a 17-year-old resident of Karvachar. His body was later found in a forested area with multiple gunshot wounds.
In 2014, 77-year-old Mamikon Khojoyan got lost during the harvest season and accidentally crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. He was detained by Azerbaijani authorities and held for 35 days. Upon his return to Armenia, there were multiple signs of torture, including injuries to his head and ears, as well as numerous fractures to his hands and ribs.
Karen Petrosyan, a resident of Chinari village, was captured on August 7, 2014. The young Armenian survived only 24 hours in Azerbaijani captivity. According to the Azerbaijani side, the cause of Petrosyan’s death was acute cardiovascular failure; however, medical records show that Karen Petrosyan had no health issues, especially no cardiovascular diseases, and was in fact healthy.
Incidents recorded during the April 2016 Four-Day War
Acts of violence against civilians were committed during the Four-Day April War of 2016. On April 2, Azerbaijani special forces tortured and executed the elderly members of the Khalapyan family in their home in the village of Talish, Nagorno-Karabakh, and then mutilated their bodies.
Incidents recorded between 2020 and 2023, during the 44-day war and the subsequent period
A significant group of abuses during the 2020 44-day war involve violence and torture committed against elderly civilians in settlements captured by Azerbaijan. Still during the war, International human rights organizations reported about targeting the civilian population. Moreover, there is evidence of the use of prohibited weapons. In Stepanakert alone, between September 27 and November 10, at least 13 civilians were killed and another 51 injured as a result of attacks on civilian infrastructure.
During and after the 44-day war, numerous videos were published online showing acts of violence, torture, humiliation, and executions committed by Azerbaijani armed forces against Armenian prisoners of war and civilians. Throughout this period and in its aftermath, Armenia documented the cases of 12 civilians who were captured, tortured, and killed by Azerbaijani servicemen. They are Eduard Shahgeldyan (79), Arsen Gharakhanyan (44), Benik Hakobyan (73), Elena Hakobyan, Serzhik Vardanyan (73), Ella Vardanyan (69), Genadi Petrosyan (69), Yurik Asryan (82), Misha Movsisyan, Anahit Movsisyan, Nina Davtyan, and Misha Melkumyan (84).
According to the second interim report by the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh titled “On the Azerbaijani Atrocities Against the Armenian Population of Artsakh in September–October 2020,” members of a sabotage group that infiltrated the town of Hadrut at noon on October 10—after the ceasefire agreement had come into force—executed civilians Nver Grigoryan and Artyom Mirzoyan.
On October 15, two videos appeared showing how in Hadrut the Azerbaijani special forces execute two Armenians in military clothes (civilian Benik Hakobyan, 73 years old) and (serviceman Yuri Adamyan, 25 years old).
On November 22 and December 3, videos posted online showed men in Azerbaijani military uniforms beheading an Armenian man with a knife. One of them then placed the severed head on a dead animal and said, “This is how we take revenge—by cutting off heads.” The beheaded individual was 69-year-old Genadi Petrosyan, a resident of the village of Madatashen in Nagorno-Karabakh, who had relocated to Artsakh from the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait in the late 1980s.
Another video showing the beheading of a civilian was posted online on December 3, 2020. The victim was 82-year-old Yuri Asryan, a resident of the village of Azokh in the Hadrut region of Nagorno-Karabakh. In the video, Yuri Asryan pleads in the name of “Allah” not to be beheaded, but an Azerbaijani-uniformed soldier cold-bloodedly decapitates him while other soldiers applaud.
Arsen Karakhanyan, a 44-year-old resident of the town of Hadrut in Nagorno-Karabakh, was killed while in Azerbaijani captivity in January 2021—after the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020, which ended the hostilities. His family last spoke to him on October 9, 2020. There had been no information about his whereabouts until January 6, 2021, when a video circulated online showing Azerbaijani soldiers forcing Arsen to say, “Karabakh is Azerbaijan.” A second video was published on January 8, 2021, showing Arsen subjected to physical and psychological torture. During search operations in the second half of January 2021, Arsen’s tortured body was found.
Additional cases of violence against civilians have also been recorded. Eighty-four-year-old Misha Melkumyan died after being taken captive and subjected to torture. Misha Movsisyan, a man with disabilities, was also killed, while Alvard Tovmasyan, a 58-year-old resident of the village of Karin Tak, was murdered by a blunt force blow to the head.
Another example of the inhumane conduct of the Azerbaijani army occurred on September 13, 2022, during Azerbaijan’s aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia. Azerbaijani soldiers carried out the mass execution of eight unarmed Armenian prisoners of war (according to another source, nine) who had been captured from a seized position in the area of Lake Sev.
Contrary to the false claims spread by the Azerbaijani side alleging that the video was fabricated, investigations conducted by BBC and Bellingcat.com have confirmed the fact of this war crime committed by Azerbaijani servicemen.
Armenian civilians who fall into Azerbaijani captivity are subjected to inhumane treatment. Azerbaijani servicemen humiliate them in detention facilities—ordering the wounded to stand up and forcing all detainees to loudly declare “Karabakh is Azerbaijan” each time the cell door is opened. Those who refuse to comply face violence.
Many of the videos have been removed or replaced with statements from Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense claiming they are fake or staged. However, the authenticity of these videos has been confirmed. Despite the acts of violence committed by Azerbaijani servicemen against civilians and the existence of international law condemning such actions, not a single Azerbaijani soldier has been held accountable or punished. On the contrary, there is a deep sense of admiration in Azerbaijan toward individuals who have committed acts of special brutality against Armenians, as evidenced by presidential awards and honors.
The protection of civilians during armed conflict is defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Azerbaijan signed in 1993. According to the Convention, individuals who “in time of war, all those not actively engaged in the hostilities and all those placed ' hors de combat ' by reason of sickness, wounds, capture, or any other circumstance, shall be given due respect and have protection from the effects of war, and that those among them who are in suffering shall be succoured and tended without distinction of race, nationality, religious belief, political opinion or any other quality .
However, the conduct of Azerbaijani Armed Forces personnel—both during wartime and in times of peace—toward military personnel and civilian populations under their control demonstrates a deeply rooted racist complex driven by motives of “revenge and retaliation.”
Just as during the period of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic (1918–1920), servicemen of the Azerbaijani army in the post-Soviet era—and particularly between 2020 and 2023—have not adhered to humanitarian values. The atrocities committed by Azerbaijani soldiers against prisoners of war come as no surprise. Although international law regulates the proper treatment of prisoners of war and civilians during armed conflict, the ethnic racism by Azerbaijani military personnel has gone far beyond “ordinary” acts of violence. These acts have included physical torture, humiliation, beheadings, executions, psychological abuse, and other forms of violence—often targeting unarmed individuals, primarily the elderly and women.
In light of the existing facts, one might ask: Which professional day of the armed forces is being celebrated in Azerbaijan — that of torture or of inhumane treatment of humans?