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In September last year, when Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno Karabakh and, as a result, the residents of Nagorno Karabakh were forced to leave their homes, a part of the ministry (state-owned) vehicles was also moved to Armenia. We revealed the fate of about two dozen of these vehicles. They were used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and are now kept hidden by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh Karen Sargsyan.
On October 11, the Information Headquarters of Nagorno Karabakh informed on its Facebook page that there is still no decision regarding state-owned vehicles, and their fate will be clear only after relevant decisions.
Meantime, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh, Karen Sargsyan, seems to have appropriated a part of the ministry vehicles, keeping them in the territory belonging to him.
Note that according to the information received from the Cadastre Committee, the area where the cars are now kept has been owned by Karen Sargsyan, the last Minister of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh, since 2015.
In total, 3 Toyota cars, 10 UAZ cars, 2 Chevrolet cars with transit license plates are hidden or parked in the area, and outside there are 2 UAZ cars, 2 Ford cars, one crane and one trailer truck.
Although the number plates of most of these cars have been changed to temporary (transit) number plates, it is obvious from the traces of torn stickers that they are the cars belonging to the Police and Rescue Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh. In the attached photos, you can see the traces of the torn “POLICE” note, as well as the Chevrolet car painted in special colors envisaged for vehicles of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh, with traces of an attempt to erase these colors with yellow paint.
We can even find footage of these cars on the Internet. For example, the KAMAZ brand crane was brought to Nagorno Karabakh immediately after the war, in December 2020, and months later it appeared again in a footage, when news websites referred to the construction taking place in Nagorno Karabakh.
And the photos of the orange UAZ cars have repeatedly appeared in the social network publications of the State Service of Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh. You can see the photos here, here, here and here.
In the first photo, there are vehicles hidden in the territory belonging to Karen Sargsyan, which were spotted by FIP.am, and the second photo has been taken from the Facebook page of the State Service of Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh.
The fact that some of these cars, according to the temporary license plates, are registered in the names of people affiliated with Karen Sargsyan is even more remarkable. For example, the crane is registered under the name of Harut Avagyan, adviser to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The other vehicles are registered in the names of the assistant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vrezh Ohanyan, the driver of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Sasun Baghdasaryan, as well as the driver of the family of Minister Karen Sargsyan, Armen Sarukhanyan. The registrations were made on September 28, just before leaving Nagorno Karabakh.
And the license plate on the truck with a white trailer is actually attached to the blue LADA car registered under the name of Garegin Asryan.
It should also be noted that when we attempted to get a little closer to those cars, the employee of the local car wash was quick to inform that it is not allowed to go there, because “they see it, they call him, telling him not to let people approach”.
We tried to see whether the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nagorno Karabakh came up with any proposal to the Armenian authorities regarding these vehicles, but the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Narek Sargsyan, stated that 9-10 fire engines were provided to the Armenian Rescue Service, but they have not yet received state registration, and, as for other cars, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia has not received any application.
It was not possible to contact Karen Sargsyan, his phone numbers have been unavailable for days.
On the evening of January 15, we tried to do our filming works openly, and in response to the prohibition of the car wash employee, we left our phone numbers for “the owner of the area to call”. As a result, the next day, on the morning of January 16, the cars were no longer in that area.
Thus, before being forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh, Minister of Internal Affairs Karen Sargsyan re-registered several dozen vehicles in the name of his associates, assigned transit number plates, and after delivering them to Armenia, hid them in the territory belonging to him, and immediately removed them from there after noticing interest on our part, moving them in an unknown direction.
Sevada Ghazaryan
