Armenian Church calls on international community to take action to release captives in Azerbaijan

The Armenian Apostolic Church’s Supreme Spiritual Council has called on the international community to take action to release the unlawfully detained Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan.

The Supreme Spiritual Council, chaired by Catholicos Karekin II, released a statement on the matter on Wednesday.

“The actions against the Armenian captives and hostages unlawfully held in Azeri custody are yet again the manifestations of the Azerbaijani authorities’ continuous hostility and aggression against the Armenian people and the Republic of Armenia,” it said, adding that the ongoing trials in Baku are conducted with explicit violations of fundamental principles of international law, and the captives are subjected to torture and inhumane treatment.

The Supreme Spiritual Council said that the Azeri authorities explicitly seek to “fundamentally distort the history of the exercise of right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh], with the aim of humiliating our people and the Armenian state.”

“Ignoring the international community’s calls and demands, the Azerbaijani government tries to not only to conceal but to justify the undeniable facts of the genocide and war crimes it had perpetrated, and misrepresent the victims as criminals. Through the fake testimonies extorted through sham trials and torture of Armenian captives, the Azerbaijani authorities attempt to secure verdicts with far-reaching, evil ambitions and create prerequisite for unleashing new demands and aggression against the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people,” it added, emphasizing that the Azeri authorities have blocked international lawyers and organizations from visiting the Armenian captives. “They are even deprived of the elemental possibilities of using spiritual care,” it said.

The Supreme Spiritual Council attached importance to the united efforts of Armenian authorities and pan-Armenian organizations to achieve the release of Armenian captives. “We call on the government of Armenia to initiate practical and maximally visible steps to utilize all opportunities and the entire potential of Armenian and international circles for this purpose. We also call upon the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, international human rights organizations and their leaders, to apply maximally effective measures against Azerbaijan to urgently repatriate the Armenian captives. Sustainable, lasting peace and conditions for dignified co-existence for generations in the region can be ensured only through the fair resolution of existing conflicts and exercise of the rights of the Artsakh Armenians,” it added.

The Supreme Spiritual Council expressed support to the Armenian captives, calling on Ruben Vardanyan to end his hunger strike for his safety, and continue “the struggle with firm faith for the right to free and dignified life.”

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Armenian Ombudsperson earlier called on all human rights organizations to intervene after receiving reports of torture and ill-treatment against the Armenian prisoners in the Azeri jail.