The NSS remained reluctant to divulge any details of the visit, the official purpose of which was to attend an international conference held there. It would not say whether Simonian also brought up the release of at least 23 Armenian prisoners, including eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, still held in Azerbaijan.
Citing an unnamed “reliable source,” the Yerevan daily Hraparak reported that Simonian asked Baku to free 10 of those captives. The list does not include any of the former Karabakh leaders, it said, adding that the NSS chief “did not utter a single word” about the latter’s release during his contacts with Azerbaijani officials.
The paper said that the Azerbaijani side responded by demanding the release of two Syrian men who were captured by Armenian forces during the 2020 war in Karabakh. Simonian “agreed to fulfill Azerbaijan’s demand,” it claimed.
An Armenian court handed life sentences to the Syrians, identified as Muhrab al-Shkheri and Yusef al-Haji, in May 2021. They both pleaded guilty to multiple accusations, including terrorism, levelled against them.
The defendants also admitted being mercenaries. Armenian officials portrayed that as further proof that thousands of Syrians recruited by Turkey fought in Karabakh on Azerbaijan’s side for money. The Armenian claims were backed by France and, implicitly, Russia.
Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh’s exiled human rights ombudsman, pointed out that Baku has previously not sought the release of the Syrians, who continue to serve their sentences in an Armenian prison.
“Azerbaijan obviously did not want to confirm the fact that mercenaries fought on the Azerbaijani side,” Stepanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “So I don’t consider logical a change in its position. But let’s wait and see if such a thing is going to happen.”
The most recent Armenian-Azerbaijani prisoner swap took place in December 2023. Azerbaijan freed 32 Armenian soldiers and civilians in exchange for Armenia’s release of two Azerbaijani servicemen. As part of the deal, Yerevan also dropped its objections to Baku’s bid to host the COP29 climate summit in 2024.
The Azerbaijani authorities remained reluctant to free the 23 other Armenian prisoners even after the initialing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty in Washington on August 8. Neither the treaty nor a separate declaration signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian at the White House commits Baku to setting them free.
This fact is emphasized by Pashinian’s domestic critics who accuse him of doing little to secure the prisoners’ release. Some of them claim that he does not want the former Karabakh leaders, notably Armenian-born billionaire and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, to be freed. Pashinian again denied that following the Washington talks hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Meeting with Pashinian separately at the White House, Trump promised to ask Aliyev to free the “23 Christians.” It is still not clear whether Trump has done that.
