Azerbaijani media reports from time to time that regular “sessions” regarding the complaints of illegally held Armenian prisoners are taking place in the Baku Court of Appeal.

It is noted that the lawyer of the former president of Artsakh, occupied by Azerbaijan, Arkady Ghukasyan, called on the court to cancel the “sentence” of his client and acquit him. In his speech, the lawyer presented justifications.
Davit Babayan, the former foreign minister of occupied Artsakh, gave a speech during the “session”, declaring again that he does not recognize himself as guilty.

Vahram Balayan, former vice-president of the Artsakh National Assembly, member of the Central Committee of the ARF Artsakh he does not have any expectations from the previous one, as well as from this “trial” process.

“Unfortunately, we do not believe that a fair trial can take place in Baku, because everything is politicized, and there they aim to justify their actions against Artsakh Armenians and Artsakh. In other words, they want to show that they “liberated the land” and the military-political leadership of Artsakh is a “military criminal”. In Azerbaijan, as always, they distort the reality and present it to the whole world.

Unfortunately, in many cases the world is indifferent to all this, we have witnessed this many times during the developments of both 2020 and 2023. Today, the world sees only Baku’s oil and gas.” 168.amVahram Balayan said in a conversation with

According to his definition, the world is guided by its own interest, not by accepted international laws, the world is only interested in its own stomach, the rest are just words.

“I have always said, and I repeat now, that Artsakh has nothing to do with Azerbaijan and its territorial integrity. Taking all this into account, we do not have any positive expectations from the ongoing judicial process in Baku,” added our interlocutor.

Regarding the visit of high-ranking EU officials to Armenia and the protest actions that took place during their visit, during which the issues of political prisoners in Armenia and Armenian prisoners held illegally in Baku were raised, Vahram Balayan noted that it is unlikely that Europe will enter into a conflict with Azerbaijan for the interests of the Armenian people, especially with Turkey, because the issue of Artsakh should not be separated from Turkey, because it is no coincidence that Erdogan he attributed the usurpation to himself.

“Turkey was interested in conquering Artsakh, because whoever conquered Artsakh would conquer the entire Caucasus, unfortunately, that’s how it happened. From this point of view, Europe will not worsen relations with Turkey for our sake. In fact, they are allies, therefore, there are no expectations in terms of restoring justice and respecting people’s rights.

Of course, the Europeans will come to Armenia, they will say sweet words, they will say that Armenians are the first Christian nation, but in difficult moments they will say, well, what can we do, in the best case, they will send a telegram of condolence to Armenians,” emphasized Vahram Balayan.

It should be noted that on May 26, the appeals court of Baku started the examination of complaints filed by the public defenders of 15 illegally convicted Armenian prisoners, including the former leaders of Artsakh.

Let’s remind that on February 5, it became known that the military and political leadership of Artsakh, except former presidents Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, were all sentenced to life imprisonment by the Baku military court. Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan were sentenced to 20 years in prison, taking into account their age.

Let’s also remind that on September 19, 2023, after the war started against Artsakh, Azerbaijan captured the former high-ranking military and political leadership of Artsakh from September 27 under the threat of killing civilians.

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