By Lia Avagyan
The release of all Armenians held in Azerbaijan remains on the agenda of talks between Yerevan and Baku, former Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said in a Boon TV interview published on Friday, September 11.
Grigoryan said Armenia continues to work on the release of the detainees, border delimitation, reopening regional transport links and implementing the August 8, 2025, Washington agreements. At the U.S.-brokered summit, Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a peace agreement and agreed to establish TRIPP, a transit route through Armenia proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The return of all prisoners to Armenia has always been on the agenda. There has not been a moment when it was removed from the agenda,” Grigoryan said.
He recalled that U.S. President Donald Trump had publicly said he would address the issue after hosting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Washington.
Asked what Armenia had failed to achieve in negotiations with Azerbaijan, Grigoryan acknowledged that the sides had yet to complete border delimitation or secure the release of all detainees.
“It would have been very good if we had already completed the delimitation and made greater progress in other areas,” he said.
However, Grigoryan argued that the August 8 agreements had created a new political environment and raised expectations of further progress. He listed the opening of transport links, the implementation of the agreed regional route, border delimitation and the release of all detainees among the issues still under discussion.
At least 19 Armenians are known to remain in Azerbaijani custody. They include former political and military leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh detained during Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive.
In February, an Azerbaijani military court sentenced five former Nagorno-Karabakh officials, including former President Arayik Harutyunyan, to life imprisonment. Eight other defendants received prison terms ranging from 15 to 20 years. The charges included war crimes, terrorism, genocide and the violent seizure of power. Human rights groups have raised concerns about the fairness of the proceedings.
Former Nagorno-Karabakh State Minister and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan was tried separately and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The European Parliament has called for the detainees’ immediate release. Azerbaijan rejects international criticism and says those convicted committed serious crimes.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that it continued to visit the detainees despite closing its permanent office in Baku in September 2025. Teams sent from Geneva have maintained contact with the prisoners and their families, although visits have become less frequent.
Talks with Hikmet Hajiyev
Grigoryan said he spoke with Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev after it became clear that he would be leaving government. The conversation was necessary to hand over his work and ensure continuity, he said. Grigoryan did not say who initiated the call.
The two officials most recently met in Dilijan after Armenia’s June parliamentary elections. Grigoryan said they discussed potential security threats and their management, the release of Armenian detainees, and the next steps in the peace process.
“There was a discussion on all issues on the Armenia-Azerbaijan agenda,” he said.
Alongside negotiations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Grigoryan and Hajiyev maintained a separate senior-level channel. They met several times in Brussels under EU facilitation and held talks at the White House in September 2022.
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