Vazgen Sargsyan supplied offensive weapons to Azerbaijani soil, witness testifies

During an ongoing trial at the Baku Military Court, documents collected during the preliminary investigation into the occupation of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territories by Armenia were presented. These include crime scene reports, photographic evidence, victim and witness testimonies, statements from Armenian suspects and defendants from the early 1990s, and expert analyses.

According to Report, Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General Vusal Aliyev, representing the state prosecution, stated that a criminal case had been launched by Senior Assistant to the USSR Prosecutor General, Justice Advisor of the 2nd Class A.I. Nikolayev, under a relevant article of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan SSR. The case pertained to mass unrest in Khojaly, Shusha, and Khankandi on September 19, 1988, with the investigation handled by a special team from the USSR Prosecutor’s Office.

During the hearing, testimony by Artur Abramyan—former driver for Murad Petrosyan—was read out. Abramyan stated that Petrosyan had met Robert Kocharyan in the deputies' lounge of the Khankandi city council. Kocharyan was a close ally of council chairman Maksim Babayan, while the head of the NKAO Party Committee, Henrik Poghosyan, led the Armenian national movement.

According to Abramyan, Kocharyan, Babayan, and Poghosyan convened the commanders of Armenian armed groups and told them the NKAO would soon secede from the Azerbaijan SSR and join the Armenian SSR. They called for full mobilization to expel Azerbaijanis from the region and encouraged direct confrontation.

In January 1991, Abramyan witnessed an Armenian named Akop tell Petrosyan that he, Armen, and Samvel had attempted to assassinate the Khankandi police chief, Yuri Kovalev, with automatic weapons. Kovalev survived. Abramyan learned that the attempt had been ordered by Petrosyan, who also supplied the firearms.

According to the testimony, weapons were delivered from Yerevan to Azerbaijani territories under the orders of Vazgen Sargsyan, then Commander of the Armenian Army. The arms were flown by helicopter into various regions, excluding Asgaran, where they were received by local Armenian armed leaders and distributed among fighters.

In early October 1989, Armenian militants Ashot and Gago planted an explosive device near a spot called "Zerinbag" in an attempt to blow up a bus on the Shusha-Khankandi highway. However, due to a delay, the bomb instead destroyed a passing KAMAZ truck.