Yerevan continues all possible efforts to achieve the release of Armenian POWs held in Azerbaijan, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan commented on what has been widely described as the mock trials of Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan.
He told reporters that Armenia continues making every possible effort to release them. He said the photos from the trials of Ruben Vardanyan and the other prisoners are “disturbing” images.
“All this time the Government of the Republic of Armenia has been utilizing all available tools in order to try and find a solution. The solution is for all 23 confirmed prisoners to be released and returned to the Republic of Armenia,” Grigoryan said.
The official said authorities can’t speak publicly on these efforts because of the highly sensitive nature of the matter.
“All of us, like the Armenian society, are concerned over Ruben Vardanyan’s hunger strike, as well as the published images where we have concerns over signs of torture. We are all working in the direction to achieve some result. And our work is not in the previous pace, there’ve been changes,” Grigoryan said.
Azerbaijan has officially acknowledged that it is holding 23 Armenian prisoners despite an 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 trials 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 Azeribaijani 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.
