By Alexander Pracht
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been ordered to leave Azerbaijan.
In response to an inquiry from CivilNet, ICRC spokesperson said Wednesday: “We have been made aware of the Azerbaijani government’s intentions for the ICRC to close our delegation in Azerbaijan. We are currently in contact with authorities, and these conversations are part of our confidential and bilateral dialogue.”
Also Wednesday, the organization’s public relations coordinator, Aurélie Lachant, confirmed the information to Azerbaijani media. Reports from Azerbaijani outlets earlier this week suggested that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Development Programme are also facing eviction.
This development follows a broader trend of increased repression against independent media and NGOs in Azerbaijan, as well as foreign media outlets and civil society groups. Last month, the BBC and Voice of America offices were evicted from the country, further tightening the government’s grip on information. Additionally, just before the Trump administration took office in January, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was also expelled from the country.
The eviction of the ICRC is particularly concerning, as it remains the only organization with access to Armenian prisoners currently on trial in Baku and the only body authorized to visit and report on Armenian POWs. Armenia has indicated that Azerbaijan is holding 32 additional prisoners beyond the 23 it officially acknowledges, but their fate remains unknown.
Without ICRC visits, Armenian prisoners in Baku will be virtually cut off from the outside world, unable to report on their condition, as the organization is their conduit for speaking with their families from time to time.
“Baku has been discontent with the ICRC ever since the blockade of Karabakh in 2022-23, notably after the organization made a statement saying that Azerbaijan is obstructing the movement of humanitarian goods,” Tigran Grigoryan, the Director of the Yerevan-based Regional Center for Democracy and Security, told CivilNet. He added that the timing of these reports aligns with the recent developments in the trials of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan.
Another possible explanation, according to Grigoryan, is that Azerbaijan is aligning itself with broader international trends. “We’ve seen statements from Donald Trump about the U.S. possibly exiting various international organizations. Aliyev is very good at grasping these trends and using them for domestic or regional purposes,” he said, adding that “the closure of the ICRC in Azerbaijan would be catastrophic for the Armenian prisoners,” Grigoryan noted.
He also warned that the potential eviction of the UN structures from the country will have broader implications for Azerbaijani society itself, particularly for its own political prisoners, as the UN still plays a significant role in monitoring their cases, arguing that such a development is more than likely. “We’re past the phase where Azerbaijan cares about international reaction,” he concluded.
The ICRC has had a presence in Azerbaijan since 1992. Notably, during the nine-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, the organization became the only legal means for local Armenians to leave the region. The ICRC facilitated the evacuation of sick local residents, using its vehicles to transport them to Armenia for medical treatment, authorized by Azerbaijan to pass through the Lachin Corridor.
After the blockade ended with a military offensive by Azerbaijan and the subsequent ethnic cleansing of the region’s Armenians in September 2023, numerous political leaders of the now-defunct Artsakh Republic were arrested on charges such as terrorism and separatism. Among them is Ruben Vardanyan, the former cabinet leader of Karabakh, who is currently on a hunger strike to protest his ill-treatment in Azerbaijani detention.
The post ICRC confirms Azerbaijan orders it to leave the country appeared first on CIVILNET.