By Hayk Hovhannisyan, #CivilNetCheck
Armenia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is refusing to disclose details of an agreement with Azerbaijan that led to the termination of a search for an Azerbaijani citizen accused of war crimes.
In April 2025, it was revealed that Armenia had ended the interstate search for Azerbaijani blogger Kyamil Zeynali within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Zeynali is accused of murdering an elderly Artsakh civilian in Hadrut during the 2020 Karabakh war.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry, the search was halted within the framework of an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan originally signed in 2007 and reconfirmed in 2024. However, the Ministry declined CivilNet’s request to provide the text of the 2007 agreement, citing it as “classified information with limited distribution” and marked “For Official Use Only,” which exempts it from publication.
Ministry Dodges Key Questions
The Interior Ministry has also failed to answer two other critical questions submitted by CivilNet: why Zeynali and other suspects were not placed on an international wanted list beyond the CIS, and whether criminal proceedings against them are still ongoing in Armenia.
Rather than provide direct responses, the Ministry referred to a report by Armenpress on April 9, which does not address these questions.
Notably, there have been no official announcements of any bilateral agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan in either 2007 or 2024. It remains unclear in what format such an agreement was signed, and who authorized or reconfirmed it.
In 2016, Armenia ratified the 2010 CIS Treaty on Interstate Search for Persons, though both Armenia and Azerbaijan signed the treaty with reservations.
“For Official Use Only”: A New Obstacle to Transparency
The Ministry’s response to CivilNet was also delayed, violating the 30-day deadline stipulated by Armenia’s Law on Freedom of Information. Furthermore, it contravened a 2015 government decision requiring state bodies to answer public inquiries completely and truthfully.
In March 2023, the government amended the Law on Freedom of Information to allow refusals based on “classified information with limited distribution.” Previously, refusals were limited to state, banking, or commercial secrets. Civil society groups and transparency advocates have warned that the vague and broad language of the amendment could severely restrict access to public information.
This is not the first time the Ministry has used classification as a barrier to disclosure. In late 2023, both the Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries refused to release the 1999 “Agreement on the Organization of the Passport System” between the Republic of Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). The agreement became the basis for the government’s decision in October 2023 not to recognize Artsakh Armenians displaced by war as Armenian citizens, despite their possession of Armenian passports (with special 070 code), which are now considered mere “travel documents.”
The passport agreement was also classified in December 2023, after repeated inquiries from CivilNet.
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