“The government of Armenia has failed to establish any sustainable and coherent mechanism for communication with them — neither through third-party countries, including the embassies of states with a presence in Baku, nor through international organizations,” Vardanyan said in his latest statement conveyed to his family by phone.

“Why? Why can Armenian officials travel to Azerbaijan on trade, economic, and other matters, but cannot organize a visit concerning the lives, health, and legal situation of Armenian captives? Is the fate of these people not more important than trade negotiations?” he asked.

Vardanyan said that many of the prisoners “have no adequate clothing and no way to receive what they genuinely need.”

“Instead, whatever assistance does reach them is organized informally, without transparency, and without regard for the actual needs of the detainees … When people who have no teeth are sent dried fruit, that is not help. That is humiliation,” he said.

“Have you no shame?” he went on, appealing to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. “Is there no shame in receiving a peace prize [in the United Arab Emirates,] speaking of peace, and accepting applause while citizens of Armenia remain in Baku’s prisons without proper protection, systemic support, assistance or oversight from their own state?”

Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, similarly criticized Pashinian’s government in his previous statement from an Azerbaijani jail circulated by his family on April 21. He also called on Armenia’s human rights ombudswoman, Anahit Manasian, to try to visit the Armenian prisoners together with their relatives.

Manasian responded by saying that she has no mandate to inspect prison conditions in Azerbaijan or any other foreign nation. She reiterated her position in the Armenian parliament on Thursday.

“If the protection of Armenian citizens held in Azerbaijani prisons does not fall within the mandate of Armenia’s human rights defender, then whose mandate is it?” countered Vardanyan.

Vardanyan was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor in September 2023 as he fled the region along with its practically 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.

Pashinian and other Armenian officials insist that Yerevan has been doing its best to try to secure the release of the prisoners. Their critics dismiss these assurances. They accused the Armenian premier of actually helping Baku legitimize Vardanyan’s imprisonment with his scathing comments about the 57-year-old billionaire and philanthropist made in August 2024.

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