Pro-Government Majority of Armenia’s Parliament Rejected Resolution on Release of Armenians Prisoners Baku

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—The pro-government majority in Armenia’s parliament on Tuesday rejected an opposition-drafted resolution calling on the international community to pressure Azerbaijan to free all of the at least 23 Armenian prisoners held by it.

The resolution debated at an extraordinary session of the National Assembly also urged the Armenian government to actively work with international bodies in trying to secure the release of the captives, among them eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Representatives of the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs that initiated the debate said that the ongoing COP29 climate summit in Baku is a unique opportunity to heighten international pressure on the Azerbaijan and get the latter to bow to it.

“It is more effective to exert direct and indirect pressure on Azerbaijan within the framework of COP29, and if the state does not act vigorously now, including at the parliamentary level, it will be more difficult later,” said Pativ Unem’s Tigran Abrahamian.

Only 30 members of the 107-seat parliament voted for the draft resolution. None of the deputies from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party were among them.

Civil Contract’s parliamentary leader, Hayk Konjoryan, said that such an appeal makes no sense because the Armenian authorities are already trying hard to have the captives set free. Another senior ruling party figure, parliament vice-speaker Ruben Rubinyan, accused the opposition of exploiting the issue for political purposes.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has reportedly expressed readiness to attend COP29 if Baku agrees to free at least some of the prisoners. No Armenian official is taking part in the two-week global summit that began in the Azerbaijani capital on Monday.

“An Armenian delegation must not participate in the international show staged by [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev as long as we have prisoners of war and hostages in Baku,” Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a Hayastan leader, said on October 31.

Armenian officials have admitted that a draft Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty discussed by the two sides would not require Baku to unconditionally free them. Also, Pashinyan has been widely criticized for his scathing comments about one of the captives, Armenian billionaire and former Nagorno-Karabakh premier Ruben Vardanyan, made at an August 31 news conference. He wondered who had told Vardanyan to renounce Russian citizenship and move to Karabakh in 2022 and “for what purpose.”

Critics said that Pashinyan thus echoed Azerbaijani leaders’ earlier claims that Vardanyan was dispatched to Karabakh by Moscow to serve Russian interests there. They accused the Armenian premier of helping Baku to legitimize and prolong the prominent tycoon’s imprisonment.

Vardanyan and the seven other Karabakh leaders were captured following Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military offensive. They were charged with “terrorism” and other grave crimes and are due to go on trial.