June 7, 2021 - 13:20 AMT
Armenian soldier arrested for espionage in favor of Azerbaijan

A former serviceman in Armenia has been arrested on charges of high treason and espionage in favor of Azerbaijan, the National Security Service said on Monday, June 7.

The man who had earlier received medals "For Impeccable Service" and "For Participation in Hostilities", badges, diplomas and government honors, went to Turkey another citizen of Armenia to find a job and was offered money to provide information from Armenia.

According to the NSS, the two photographed and filmed military units and equipment, studied the deployment of air defense systems in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). During the war, they recorded the movement of troops on camera and sent everything they had to the enemy through a special application.

The man served as the commander of a volunteer detachment during hostilities in the Karabakh region of Hadrut which ended up coming under Azerbaijan's control, the NSS reported. Using information received from him, Azerbaijan managed to locate strategic systems and warehouses, deliver targeted strikes and disable army formations. His accomplice in the rear, meanwhile, gave Baku accurate information on the location of the air defense missile systems, which were eventually destroyed with drones. The defendants made confessions.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev on November 9 signed a statement to end the war in Karabakh after almost 45 days. Under the deal, the Armenian side has returned all the seven regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, having lost a part of Karabakh itself in hostilities.