Tag: Arayik Harutyunyan

Arayik Harutyunyan served as President of the Republic of Artsakh from 2020 until its dissolution in September 2023. He took office in the midst of the 44-Day War and led the de facto republic through its most catastrophic period: the military defeat of 2020, the years-long blockade of the Lachin Corridor, and the final Azerbaijani offensive of September 19–20, 2023 that forced the surrender of Artsakh and the ethnic cleansing of its entire population from Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia. The Republic of Artsakh was itself a product of the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh exercising their claimed right to self-determination — and Harutyunyan led an internationally unrecognized but democratically elected government whose existence embodied that assertion.

Following the dissolution of Artsakh and the mass exodus, Harutyunyan remained behind and subsequently surrendered to Azerbaijani authorities. He was arrested and charged with terrorism and other offenses — charges that Armenian officials and international human rights organizations characterized as politically motivated. He has been held in pretrial detention in Baku, joining a group of former Artsakh leaders and officials imprisoned by Azerbaijan following the collapse of the republic.

Groong has covered Harutyunyan extensively across his presidency — his military and political decisions during the 44-Day War, his management of the blockade period, the circumstances of his surrender, and the subsequent legal proceedings in Baku. Episodes in this category address the decisions and constraints he faced as leader of a de facto state under siege, and the broader question of accountability for the collapse of Armenian Karabakh.