Yet another former leader of Nagorno-Karabakh jailed in Azerbaijan has accused Armenia’s leadership of being indifferent to the fate of Armenian prisoners.
Major-General Davit Manukian, who had served as a deputy commander of Karabakh’s Armenia-backed army, challenged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to publicly comment on “fabricated and false” accusations levelled against himself and seven other former Karabakh Armenian leaders remaining in Azerbaijani captivity.
“Sadly, those [prisoners] who are held here do not feel the breath of the Republic of Armenia,” he said in an audio message communicated to his family by phone and publicized on Monday.
The former Karabakh leaders were captured right after the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced the region’s Armenian population to flee to Armenia. They all denied a long list of war crimes charges levelled against them. Five them, including Manukian, were sentenced to life in prison, while the three others received 20-year prison sentences in February this year in trials denounced by Amnesty International as a “travesty.”
They all deny the accusations that including the planning, preparation and conduct of the 2020 war in Karabakh.
Appealing to Pashinian, Manukian said: “Since you were Armenia’s prime minister and at the same time commander-in-chief at that time — and the planning of the war starts precisely from that level — I urge you to present your position on these specific accusations,” he said. “Failure to respond will mean that you agree with the false accusations, thereby making not only you but also the entire Armenian people, complicit.”
Two other Armenian prisoners — billionaire Ruben Vardanyan and former Karabakh parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanian — have likewise lambasted Pashinian in their statements from an Azerbaijani prison. Ishkhanian charged earlier this year that Armenia’s leadership does not want Baku to free the 19 Armenian prisoners. Pashinian, who is currently on vacation, has not reacted to the claims.
The Armenian premier and other officials insist that Yerevan has been doing its best to try to secure the release of the prisoners. Their critics dismiss these assurances.
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