Videos of a war crime carried out by Azerbaijani forces in the disputed region of Artsakh have been verified as almost certainly real by military analysts and observers. The chilling videos show two Armenians being captured by Azerbaijani forces and then executed.
The two individuals killed have been named as 73-year-old Benik Hakobyan and 25-year-old Yuri Adamyan.
In the videos, the two individuals surrender to a man speaking in Russian with an Azerbaijani accent. The younger man removes his helmet and has his hands in the air, he then walks off camera. The older man is pushed to the ground. It is unclear whether these men were Armenian soldiers, civilians, or civilians engaging in combat.
The second video shows the men being draped in the flags of Artsakh and Armenia and put against a wall. They are then hit with multiple shots and they slump to the ground.
Azerbaijan has described the videos as fake propaganda created to discredit them. Several senior organisations and individuals have now verified them as almost certainly authentic.
The BBC confirmed that the videos were certainly filmed in the town of Hadrut, a scene of heavy fighting, and impartial investigators from Bellingcat who specialise in evaluating evidence collected in warzones have also stated the videos are real. Bellingcat stated that the videos:
"Would appear to indicate that these two men were indeed Armenian combatants who were captured between October 9 and October 15 by Azerbaijani soldiers, possibly special forces, and likely executed a short time later".
Likewise, a former British military intelligence officer speaking to the BBC added:
"These are real bullets, this is a real killing. This is genuine, and I don't see any reason to assume it's staged."
The European Human Rights group, the Council of Europe, is now investigating the videos and say that they will respond to any alleged war-crimes with appropriate action.
Fighting in Artsakh broke out on September 27th this year. Artsakh, known officially as Nagorno-Karabakh lies officially within Azerbaijani territory. However, it is inhabited largely by Christian ethnic Armenians who state that they are discriminated against by the Azerbaijani state and by elements in the Azerbaijani Muslim majority. They seek either their own state or to be unified with Armenia. Azerbaijan is being supported in the current conflict by Turkish arms and fighters.
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