Armenian authorities raid offices of Nagorno-Karabakh representation after talks on refugee return
On Thursday, Armenian authorities searched the building housing the Nagorno-Karabakh representation in Armenia as part of unspecified criminal proceedings. Critics have suggested a political pretext behind the search, which followed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s criticism over Nagorno-Karabakh officials reaffirmations that they did not intend to abandon their right to return to the region.
As the authorities declined to provide details about the case behind the search, opposition figures and the lawyer representing the Nagorno-Karabakh office suggested the raid was linked to allegations of misappropriated funds from Nagorno-Karabakh’s investment programmes.
In April, a group of Nagorno-Karabakh refugees protested outside the representatives office, demanding the return of these funds. In response, the last president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Samvel Shahramanyan, said he welcomed their demands, adding that he had submitted a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office in November 2023.
‘A criminal case was initiated on this basis, within that framework I was invited as a witness for questioning, the electronic media of the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] Investment Fund were seized’, Shahramanyan said in April.
He further noted that aside from him, other former officials from the region, as well as the director of the investment fund, were also questioned.
Opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan, who was among the first to report on the raids on Thursday, argued there was ‘no basis’ for the searches.
In a press briefing, Abrahamyan said former Nagorno-Karabakh authorities had already provided Armenian law enforcement with all relevant information regarding the case, and insisted the searches were politically motivated.
‘While Azerbaijan is exerting pressure on the Armenian authorities, putting forward the artificial concept of “western Azerbaijan” and threatening the return of Azerbaijanis, the Armenian authorities are taking another step that pleases Azerbaijan’, Abrahamyan wrote on Facebook.
Separately, lawyer Roman Yeritsyan said in a press briefing on Thursday that the criminal case under which searches were underway was initiated in June 2025 and is related to an alleged economic crime.
‘It was obvious to us from the beginning that everything was connected to yesterday’s hearings. These are the messages that we receive from the Armenian authorities. I do not exclude that in the future all this will be continuous’, Nzhdeh Iskandaryan, former State Minister of the region, told journalists that same day.
The searches were launched the day after Pashinyan made a statement during a press briefing in Germany, which allegedly referred to discussions in Armenia by former Nagorno-Karabakh authorities on Constitution Day, in which they reaffirmed their intention not to abandon their right of return to the region.
During the same press briefing, Pashinyan made an ‘open and public proposal’ to Azerbaijan to ‘adopt a joint roadmap aimed at simultaneously’ putting aside this issue of the return of refugees to so-called ‘western Azerbaijan’ and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
‘Because removing this issue means, from a long-term strategic perspective, eliminating any potential conflict situation’, Pashinyan said.
The remarks came in response to Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry claims regarding a new strategic agenda adopted by the EU and Armenia in Brussels on 2 December.
