The ethnically mixed Armenian-Azeri region, located within Azerbaijan's borders, has been a point of conflict since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Over 100,000 residents were besieged from the end of 2022 until October 2023, with the ICRC being the only entity allowed to provide aid and conduct medical evacuations.
The OCCRP story outlined how Azerbaijan hindered the ICRC’s efforts by imposing bureaucratic and logistical obstacles and even outright banning movement.
The article contained an interview with a former senior ICRC employee, who worked on the Nagorno-Karabakh mission and spoke to OCCRP under the condition of anonymity. Before publishing the story, OCCRP cross-checked the claims of that person against leaked convoy data, statements from other ICRC and government officials, interviews with locals, and local news reports during the Nagorno-Karabakh blockade.
"Unfortunately, today the ICRC, in violation of its charter and international humanitarian law, is engaged in providing false information to individuals writing reports commissioned by Armenia and is participating in a biased anti-Azerbaijan propaganda campaign," wrote Hikmet Hajiyev, a senior policy advisor to the presidential administration, in a lengthy post on August 30, referring to the claims made by the ICRC
After the OCCRP publication, the governing board of the Azerbaijan Red Crescent issued a statement describing the report as "biased, baseless, and completely far from reality," and said it included opinions unjustly targeting the state of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society.
The Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society urged the Red Cross Movement to take a stand against the OCCRP article.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network that supports Red Cross and Red Crescent actions in 191 countries, told OCCRP in an email on Wednesday that "since 2023, in various meetings with the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society leadership, we have emphasized that operations and public statements must be aligned with our Fundamental Principles." The dialogue is ongoing, the email noted.
This story has been updated with a clarification that the reaction came from the IFRC, an umbrella organization for 191 national Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations.