The Investigative Committee declined to immediately give a reason for the searches conducted in the building by its officers. According to Karabakh-born lawyer and activist Roman Yeritsian, the raid is supposedly part of a criminal investigation into “presumed economic crimes.”
There was also no immediate reaction from Karabakh’s exiled leadership in Armenia. The latter held in the same building on Wednesday a meeting on ways of campaigning for the safe repatriation of Karabakh’s displaced population. Ashot Danielian, the acting Karabakh president, vowed to open a “new chapter” in that struggle.
Later on Wednesday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian reiterated his earlier statements that raising the issue on the international stage is “dangerous” for the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.
“I have also told our people in Karabakh that … it is not realistic,” Pashinian said during a visit to Germany. “But on the other hand, in Armenia they also see that Azerbaijan constantly uses the incomprehensible terminology of ‘Western Azerbaijan’ [in reference to much of Armenia’s territory.]”
He proposed that Baku and Yerevan “simultaneously close both topics.” Artak Beglarian, a former Karabakh premier critical of the Armenian government, suggested that the raid on the Karabakh representation may be connected to Pashinian’s latest comments.
“It’s not up to Nikol Pashinian or any other prime minister of Armenia to renounce the return of the people of Artsakh,” he said. “It’s the people of Artsakh who must decide whether to return or not.”
Beglarian also said that the raid is part of the Pashinian administration’s ongoing “persecution” of the Karabakh Armenian leadership.
“It's just that yesterday's parliamentary hearings [held in the representation building] were an additional reason for new searches conducted there,” he told reporters.
The Armenian authorities moved to seize the building in July this year, with the Office of the Prosecutor-General asking a Yerevan court to invalidate the Karabakh government’s ownership of it formalized in 2017.
Last year Pashinian repeatedly lambasted Karabakh’s Yerevan-based leaders for continuing to present themselves as a government in exile and threatened to crack down on them. He also accused them of encouraging Karabakh Armenian refugees to participate in antigovernment protests in the Armenian capital. The leaders of Karabakh’s main political groups responded by accusing him of unleashing repressions and waging a smear campaign against the Karabakh Armenians.
Pashinian publicly recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh even before the September 2023 offensive that restored Baku’s full control of the territory and forced its ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia. He has repeatedly indicated that the Karabakh issue is closed for his administration.