Security forces stood in front of protesters outside Azerbaijani embassy, Lebanon, Sept. 28 (Credit: Mario Doueiry/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said on Monday that the ministry was "not informed about the security measures that were taken" during the demonstration by Lebanese-Armenians in front of Azerbaijan's Embassy in Ain Aar last Thursday.
Twenty-five Internal Security Forces (ISF) agents and 12 demonstrators were injured during the demonstration where supporters of the Tashnag party protested the dissolution of the self-proclaimed Armenian Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
State-run National News Agency reported on Monday that Mawlawi sent a letter to the ISF's inspection department to conduct a detailed investigation of what happened during the demonstration.
"Since we were not informed about the security measures that were taken during the aforementioned demonstration, including the throwing of tear gas grenades, which led to the wounding of soldiers and civilians and their admission to hospitals, as well as the injury of a number of children and their families, we request that you conduct a detailed investigation into what happened, determine responsibilities and suggest the disciplinary methods to be taken against the guilty parties if proven," said Mawlawi in his letter.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a region with an Armenian majority that seceded from Azerbaijan when the USSR disintegrated. For more than three decades, it has been at odds with Baku, notably in two active wars between 1988 and 1994, and in the autumn of 2020.
But last week, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive to retake it, forcing the separatists to capitulate within 24 hours, without the intervention of Russian peacekeepers deployed there since late 2020.
Armenia, which has supported this territory for decades, did not intervene militarily this time either, paving the way for the region's reintegration into Azerbaijan.
Since then, tens of thousands of Armenians fled the arrival of Azerbaijani troops, fearing repression and violence via the Lachin corridor, which is the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. It was reopened on Sunday by Baku after months of blockade.