On July 29, the International Committee of the Red Cross made an announcement regarding the transfer of fifteen patients through the Lachin Corridor. During this process, one man, Vagif Khachatryan, was arrested. Khachatryan was leaving Nagorno -Karabakh to seek medical treatment for a health problem. However, he is now being held in Azerbaijan and is accused of committing massacres, deportations and material damage in the village of Meshali, Kohajly district, during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in 1991.

The evidence presented so far by Azerbaijan includes an interview with an Azerbaijani witness who, in 2001, named a person named "Vagif" among those responsible for war crimes. Armenian authorities accuse Azerbaijan of kidnapping Khachatryan as a means of threatening the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has since transferred Khachatryan to a medical facility in Baku and is now preparing for trial.

The case has quickly attracted attention in Brussels, with French MEP Nathalie Loiseau using her Twitter account to strongly condemn Khachatryan's arrest. Loiseau, who is also the head of the Security and Defense Subcommittee of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, had previously led a group of MEPs to Armenia in June 2023. During that visit, they joined the EU Monitoring Mission in a tour of the Armenian border areas adjacent to the Lachin Corridor.

Nathalie Loiseau's statement echoes the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in March 2023, calling for targeted sanctions against the Azerbaijani authorities, and is part of an ongoing competition within the EU institutions, with MEPs accusing the EU Commission of neglecting their calls for sanctions and prioritizing energy and economic ties with Baku.

Read also: Azerbaijan Detains 68-year-old Armenian During Medical Transfer, Alleges War Crimes