Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan reported today that Azerbaijani forces have taken several dozen Armenian soldiers prisoner near the Hadrut village of Khtsaberd.
Harutyunyan, in a statement released today, said that the Artsakh Defense Ministry is taking steps to clarify the situation.
Khtsaberd is one of the villages that remained under Armenian control when the November 9 ceasefire took effect. Last week, Azerbaijani forces launched an assault on the village, prompting the dispatch of Russian peacekeepers to the area.
Harutyunyan said that the main focus of Artsakh’s foreign policy will be to ensure the security of the populace via political means.
“The second direction is the clarification of issues related to the international status of Artsakh, which implies international recognition of the independence of the Artsakh Republic, based on the unconditional recognition of the fact of realization of the right of our people to self-determination,” the statement reads.
Harutyunyan also called “for the restoration of the territorial integrity of the Artsakh Republic” based on security and humanitarian interests. He did not specify what this means.
Turning to humanitarian issues, Harutyunyan wrote that housing must be provided for those left homeless due to the war and minimum social conditions ensured.
Unemployed Artsakh citizens will receive a monthly 68,000-dram stipend for at least six months, and that the government will subsidize various utility expenses.
Harutyunyan also claimed that he was ready to resign as Artsakh president once the war ended but didn’t since he believed such a move would have resulted in greater domestic political instability and that snap residential and parliamentary elections were impossible in the post-war situation.
“Finally, I am not a person who avoids responsibility. On the contrary, in this difficult period, I take full responsibility for rescuing our homeland and people from the post-war crisis,” Harutyunyan wrote.
The Artsakh president called for a comprehensive investigation looking into the actions of top government officials during the war to reveal possible cases of high treason and other crimes.
“As for the results of the investigation and the actions arising from them, I am not only ready to bear my share of responsibility, but I am also obliged to do my best to bring the perpetrators to justice in specific issues and to solve the identified problems,” he wrote.
Three days of mourning will be declared in Artsakh and Armenia on December 19 to commemorate those who died during the war.