RFE/RL – Armenian Ombudswoman Responds To Ruben Vardanyan

“I urge you to consider organizing a visit to Baku with your participation, and, under appropriate conditions, with the participation of relatives of Armenian prisoners as well,” Vardanyan said in a statement circulated through his family on Tuesday.

Vardanyan revealed that he recently met with Manasian’s Azerbaijani opposite number, Sabina Aliyeva, to discuss his concerns about the captives’ “everyday conditions, medical care, legal matters, humanitarian needs, and diplomatic issues.”

“In the course of our conversation, it was also mentioned that the possibility of your visit to Baku had already been discussed and that the Azerbaijani side had expressed readiness to facilitate such a visit,” he added, appealing to Manasian.

Manasian responded by saying that she has received no such “official proposal” from Baku or “confirmation” of the Azerbaijani side’s readiness to organize the trip. In a written statement, the ombudswoman sounded skeptical about the idea, saying that she has no mandate to inspect prison conditions in any foreign nation.

Siranush Sahakian, a human rights lawyer representing the Armenian captives in the European Court of Human Rights, also did not back the idea.

“Armenia’s human rights defender cannot carry out independent activities in Azerbaijan,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Sahakian said that the Azerbaijani authorities could use Manasian’s visit to Baku to cover up their ill-treatment of the Armenian prisoners. She pointed out that they continue to deny representatives of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) access to the prisoners.

Sahakian also said that the Armenian government is in a much a better position than Manasian to campaign for their release and repatriation. The government maintains that it has been doing its best for that purpose. Its critics dismiss these assurances.

Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor in September 2023 as he fled Karabakh along with its entire ethnic Armenian population. Seven other former Karabakh Armenian leaders were also arrested during the exodus that followed an Azerbaijani military offensive.

Five of them were sentenced to life imprisonment while the two others as well as Vardanyan received 20-year jail sentences in February at the end of yearlong trials denounced by Amnesty International as a “travesty.” They all denied a long list of accusations brought against them.

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