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Two old men who were beheaded by Azerbaijani forces have been identified in videos widely shared on messaging apps, confirming two of the bloodiest atrocities of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ethnic Armenian men were not combatants, people in their respective villages said. Both were beheaded by men in the uniforms of the Azerbaijani armed forces. The short, gruesome videos of the killings are among the worst in a torrent of images showing abuse, torture and killings that have continued to appear more than a month after a Russian-mediated ceasefire went into effect.
Villagers’ testimony in interviews with The Guardian corroborates the identifications of an Armenian-backed local government human rights ombudsman and two prominent Armenian human rights lawyers preparing a criminal case related to the killings.
The Guardian also confirmed one of the victim’s identities with a family member and reviewed a passport application photograph that closely resembles the other victim.
In videos posted online on November 22 and December 3, men in uniforms similar to those of the Azerbaijani army restrain and behead a man with a knife. The severed head is then placed on a dead animal. “This is how we get revenge: cutting off heads,” says an off-camera voice.
Two residents of Madatashen village in Nagorno-Karabakh identified the victim as Genadi Petrosyan, 69, who had moved to the village in the late 1980s from the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait.
Gayane Petrosyan (no relative), the local school principal, lived directly across from Petrosyan’s modest two-room house. He said his father had helped install the village’s electrical system and had shown him photos of a son who had moved to Russia with his ex-wife.
She said of one of the videos: “I could clearly see his face and I could recognize that it was him.” The Guardian has also seen a photograph of Petrosyan that looks a lot like the victim in the video.
Genadi Petrosyan, who lived alone, resisted leaving the village when the Azerbaijani forces approached. When a neighbor tried to push him away, he got out of the car and walked home.
Eduard Hayrapetyan, the village chief, said he had known Petrosyan for more than three decades and considered him a close friend of his family. He received his last call from Petrosyan on the morning of October 28, to tell him that he had seen enemy forces in the village. Then, after weeks of silence, the video appeared.
“I feel great regret that I took him out of town and then he came back and this happened,” Hayrapetyan said. “I just can’t find my place.”
Artak Beglaryan, an Armenian-backed local government human rights ombudsman, said Petrosyan had been identified by reviewing 35 missing persons reports for the region and then contacting acquaintances, who confirmed his identity.
He called for greater efforts by the international community to investigate the war crimes of the conflict. “Western countries have been silent and have not taken practical measures,” he said. “They have the duties and the levers to talk about this … we don’t see any results, we don’t see any process from them.”
Siranush Sahakyan, a human rights lawyer, also confirmed Petrosyan’s identity and said that she and a colleague, Artak Zeynalyan, had prepared a criminal investigation into the murder.
“Emotionally, it is difficult to watch the videos. From a professional perspective, it can be very useful evidence, ”Sahakyan said, warning that they had to carefully examine the videos to make sure they were not faked.
Amnesty International has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to investigate videos of beheadings and desecration of bodies. The organization has used digital verification techniques to authenticate the images reviewed in this article, as well as the images of the murder of an Azerbaijani border guard who had his throat slit. Other videos show soldiers desecrating the bodies of enemy combatants.
While both parties have been implicated, online channels are increasingly dominated by videos of Armenian soldiers and civilians being abused by advancing Azerbaijani troops.
New revelations of torture and abuse mean that for many the violence continues even long after the war is stopped. “Armenians and Azerbaijanis are watching these videos every day, and every day there is a new video that is sending a new wave of attacks on public sensibilities,” said Tanya Lokshina, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, who prepared a thorough report on abuses against Armenian prisoners of war, released earlier this month. “That trauma also results in higher levels of hatred. Even now, when the active stage of the struggle is over. “
Some of the scariest and most viewed videos have also been some of the hardest to confirm. A video posted on a Telegram channel on December 7 showed two soldiers in uniforms commensurate with the Azerbaijani army immobilizing an elderly man near a tree. Another soldier passes a knife to one of the attackers, who begins to cut the victim’s neck. The victim’s head begins to separate from the neck before the video ends.
Three residents of Azokh village identified the victim in this video as Yuri Asryan, an 82-year-old loner who had refused to leave the village on October 20 as Azerbaijani forces approached.
“He didn’t communicate much with others. He just refused to leave, ”said Georgi Avesyan, the village chief for a long time until 2019 and one of the people who identified Asryan. He said that it was possible that Asryan did not fully understand what was happening.
Azerbaijani forces entered the village days later and it has remained under Baku’s control under the ceasefire agreement signed on November 9.
There was no news of Asryan’s fate until a 29-second video surfaced last week on social media, including Telegram channels trafficking gory footage of the conflict.
Araik Azumanyan, the current village head, said: “I received calls from many people in the village, and even people who had moved from the village to Armenia many years ago saying that it seemed [Asryan] in the video.”
A third villager who recognized Asryan said: “I felt terrible after seeing him, my blood pressure was high, I couldn’t compose myself for a week after seeing that.”
Beglaryan, the human rights ombudsman, and Sahakyan, the human rights lawyer, also confirmed Asryan’s identity. His closest relative, an older sister who visited him occasionally, knows that Asryan has died but has not seen the video. Asryan’s niece also confirmed to The Guardian that it was him in the video.
Last month, the Attorney General of Azerbaijan publicly launched an investigation into the war crimes committed by both Baku and Yerevan. On Monday he made his first arrests, arresting two Azerbaijani soldiers for desecrating the bodies of dead Armenian troops and two for destroying graves. He has not publicly opened any criminal case for beheadings.
There are hundreds of other abuse videos online. Sahakyan said she and a colleague were investigating 75 cases of captive Armenian soldiers and civilians in the European court of human rights, including 35 that included video evidence. On Monday night, the two governments held a massive prisoner swap, media from both countries reported.
In one video, a villager named Kamo Manasyan is kicked and beaten as blood flows from his right eye. “How many more of you are here?” Yells his interrogator in heavily accented Russian, pointing a rifle at Manasyan’s head. “Shoot me if you want,” Manasyan replies. Instead, the man hits him with the rifle.
“It was difficult to watch this video with this cruelty,” Gagik, his nephew, said in a video call. “I think they just want to show their success in this war and humiliate the Armenians, to show that they won.”
Manasyan’s sister Nora cannot bear to watch the video. “I want the prisoners of war to come back as soon as possible,” he cried. “I want peace”.
Asked for comment on allegations of human rights abuses during the war, a spokesman for the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights said: “At this time, we can only say that the Commissioner has received videos and other material that alleges human rights violations. Before expressing himself publicly, he wants to carry out a mission to be able to assess the situation in the first person. She is planning a mission to the region soon. “
* Gohar Martirosyan contributed reports and translations from Yerevan, Armenia.
