Armenian government faces criticism over inaction on Armenian prisoners in Baku
By Paul Vartan Sookiasian
“Who is dealing with the issue of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan’s custody,” is the question that is being asked a year after the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan’s illegal arrest and imprisonment of Armenian civilians and officials from the region.
Amid efforts by prisoners’ families, local and international civil society organizations, many wonder what steps the Armenian government has taken to secure their freedom, especially in the run-up to the COP29 global climate summit in Baku later this year which naturally attracts attention to Azerbaijan and its regime.
During a press conference in August, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan implied that his government is not doing much. Although he hinted that work is being done behind the scenes, he went on to question the integrity and value of these hostages, focusing particularly on businessman and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan.
That press conference elicited much criticism from those outside the government who have been tirelessly working to secure the release of these Armenian citizens.
Following the end of the 2020 war and the subsequent 2023 attack on Nagorno-Karabakh that ethnically cleansed its Armenian population, Azerbaijan acknowledges to still holding 23 ethnic Armenian prisoners, including eight former senior Nagorno-Karabakh officials. Senior Armenian officials and Armenian human rights lawyers, however, say there is evidence dozens more Armenians are also held there. Not all are prisoners of war or political prisoners. Some are just civilians – hostages caught and held without cause.
According to the U.S.-based non-profit the Center for Truth and Justice, “an unknown number of Armenian civilians have been taken hostage since 2020 by Azerbaijani security personnel in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and even within the borders of Armenia. Additionally, Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) remain in Azerbaijani prisons, enduring an unknown amount of persecution. Based on testimonial evidence from repatriated POWs, it is suspected that there are dozens more being held in detention in Azerbaijan, which Azerbaijan has neither claimed nor denied.”
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The situation has remained mostly stagnant, except for two opaque military trials held over the past year that sentenced civilians Vagif Khachaturyan and Rashid Beglaryan to 15 years in prison each.
Hrair Balian, director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the Atlanta-based Carter Center and a longtime peacebuilding practitioner, in a series of visits to Yerevan, has raised these issues both publicly and privately. Most recently, in a succinct interview to CivilNet, he specified:
“The three cardinal rules for hostage negotiations are the following: make sure you do not do any harm, establish a dialogue with those who are holding the hostages to explore ideas on an exchange, and look for incentives or ‘bargaining chips’. The Armenian government has violated all three of these rules.”
According to Balian, Pashinyan’s recent criticism questioning Vardanyan’s motives for coming to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh “were really inappropriate and at a very inappropriate time.” Within days, Azerbaijani officials exploited the comments coming from Armenia’s leader to reinforce their accusations against Vardanyan. Balian added that “if there are scores to settle, don’t do it now when they’re in jail.”
Balian considers the Armenian government’s strategy of leaving the prisoner issue out of ongoing negotiations for a normalization deal with Azerbaijan to be a violation of the second rule on maintaining dialogue on the issue. “Yes, it complicates things, but why not include this issue in their negotiations with the Azerbaijani authorities?,” said Balian.
Thirdly, Balian believes the Armenian government violated the rule to look for incentives in its agreement last year where Azerbaijan freed 32 other Armenian hostages in exchange for Armenia freeing the two Azerbaijani prisoners it held and the removal of its veto against Azerbaijan’s holding of the COP29 UN global climate summit. Noting Azerbaijan’s strong desire to host the influential gathering of world leaders, Balian questioned why an “all-for-all prisoner exchange” wasn’t pursued, calling it a huge missed opportunity for Armenia.
While the prisoner issue is indeed a complicated one to resolve, Balian says the government’s impulse to not address it could backfire. “If the prisoners are not included in the agreement, that would be a contentious point that could eventually undo whatever other agreement they have come to. It has to be included in any kind of a peace negotiation with Azerbaijan.”
For future steps, Balian expressed hope Armenian government officials will correct their course, and advised an important step can be undertaken with COP29. “Either boycott it, or reduce the level of representation if they participate. And if they do go, they should demand to see the prisoners.”
