Ruben Vardanyan urges Armenia to arrange family visits for Baku captives

From a prison cell in Baku, Ruben Vardanyan has called on Armenian authorities to help secure family visits for Armenian detainees held in Azerbaijan, according to a statement relayed during a phone call with his relatives and published on Tuesday.

Addressing Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan, Vardanyan said her Azerbaijani counterpart Sabina Aliyeva had told him that the two officials might soon meet in Baku. He urged Manasyan to agree to such a visit and bring along relatives of Armenian prisoners.

“Any such delegation must have an institutional and consistent character, with the political backing of the Prime Minister of Armenia, who bears responsibility before the citizens of his country,” he said.

Vardanyan argued that Armenian detainees in Azerbaijan have been left without external oversight following the expulsion of the International Committee of the Red Cross from the country last year. He said the absence of the organization has effectively cut off humanitarian communication, including family visits and independent monitoring.

Also read:  ICRC confirms Azerbaijan orders it to leave the country

He criticized the ombudsperson’s office for failing to establish an alternative mechanism, saying the institution “has demonstrated a complete absence of initiative,” and also attacked the Armenian government for what he described as “failure to act in the interests of its citizens.”

Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire, cofounder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, and backer of numerous other philanthropic ventures, briefly served as State Minister of the now-defunct Nagorno-Karabakh Republic after the 2020 war. He was detained by Azerbaijan in October 2023. This February, he was sentenced to 20 years in an Azerbaijani prison on charges including financing terrorism, forming illegal armed groups, and illegally crossing the state border. He rejects the accusations as politically motivated.

The same month, Azerbaijan sentenced seven other former Karabakh leaders who remain in custody. Only two, former presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, avoided life sentences, each receiving 20-year terms.

Earlier in January, Armenia secured the release of four civilian detainees and says it continues negotiations with Baku over the remaining prisoners. Parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan called on Baku to release the captives in his speech at the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in Istanbul last Friday. Azerbaijani officials, however, have indicated that the release of former Karabakh leaders is not under consideration.