Yerevan demonstrators call on authorities to push for release of POWs in Azerbaijan

Demonstrators gathered outside the foreign ministry headquarters in Yerevan on Friday to demand authorities to convene a meeting with members of the diplomatic corps and present the Azeri unlawful jailing and mock trials against Armenian prisoners, including former Karabakh officials.

The demonstrators were holding photos of the unlawfully detained Armenians.

One of the demonstrators said the international community’s silence is “unacceptable.”

“We call on the foreign ministry to convene a meeting with accredited diplomats in Armenia to present the crimes taking place against our compatriots in Baku and demand substantial steps,” said one of the demonstrators, calling on the foreign ministry to push for the release of the POWs through the international community.

Former Karabakh official Ruben Vardanyan’s February 19 statement was read during the demonstration.

Mesrop Arakelyan, the co-founder of the Aprelu Yerkir party, also called on the authorities to take action to achieve the release of the prisoners.

“At the same time we realize that the current conduct of Azerbaijan doesn’t allow to solve the issue only with Armenia’s powers. But Armenia must raise this issue in international platforms,” he said.

The demonstrators said they would continue the protest outside the UN office.

Azerbaijan has officially acknowledged that it is holding 23 Armenian prisoners despite a post-war obligation to release all POWs and detainees. 

The detainees include former top officials of Nagorno-Karabakh such as the former presidents Bako Sahakyan, Arkady Ghukasyan and Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan. They were arrested after the 2023 Azeri offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh which resulted in the forced displacement of the region’s entire Armenian population of over 100,000. 

The former officials are all facing fabricated charges in what many experts and officials have described as sham trials.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan recently described the Azeri trial as “mock trials.”

Vardanyan, whose case has been separated from the others, recently announced a hunger strike in protest of the sham trial. In a statement, he called on world leaders and the international community to interfere. On February 25, during yet another court session of the Azeri military tribunal, Vardanyan’s health deteriorated and the hearing was postponed. 

Vardanyan has vehemently denied all charges against him which include “financing terrorism” and “illegally entering” Karabakh. Vardanyan, as well as many experts, have described the charges as falsifications. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo earlier slammed the charges as bogus, emphasizing that Baku is using the show trials to cover up its crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh.  

Jared Genser, Vardanyan’s lawyer, recently said that his client’s health is in danger.