This is not a trial, this is an ethno-political vendetta. Davit Babayan’s message

Davit Babayan, former foreign minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, who is in Azerbaijani captivity, appealed to all human rights defenders and people of good will. The audio message was transmitted to NEWS.am through Davit Babayan’s family, which we present below.

“Dear compatriots, Armenians around the world, people of goodwill around the world, human rights defenders, journalists,

I have to appeal to you, because I simply have no other alternative. You know that we have been here for three years now, legal proceedings are going on and, of course, with major violations, but recently another one has been added to these violations, my letter complaints addressed to the appeals court have disappeared, so that this case will also be reviewed in the appeals court, and we want to appeal to the international court.

My lawyer informed me about it on May 7, saying that it was the last day for submission of applications. It was, of course, a surprise, because the last day was supposed to be February 25, and on February 23, I sent two applications from the detention center, and one letter through the head of the detention center, requesting that this be sent. And all that has disappeared, is gone. I was forced to write another letter, but I don’t know the answer, so it is not excluded that they will try to prevent me from submitting my applications to the Court of Appeal.

Apart from that, my last appearance in the court of first instance on December 19, 2025 was also taken from the April 21 solitary confinement. This is also nothing but a move to destroy all critical speeches. Therefore, please all of you take this as information, to the international court as a proceeding, and to the international community for information, because we really want to go to the international court.

Therefore, I call on all Armenians and people of good will to help us in this matter. I am doing this for the sake of justice, democracy, protection of human rights, for true peace, and I think this is the only way in this direction. Therefore, I would also ask you to demand, to request that our last speeches be provided to you also on video, if they have not already been destroyed.

And now I would like to briefly present the court process, who knows what will happen to me tomorrow, so that you will be aware of what is happening in general. This ongoing trial is, of course, fake, all norms of humanity, justice, fairness, international law, their own legislation are grossly violated. I call for our patriotic Armenians to unite and defend our rights, because we will appeal to the international court. All their arguments are fabricated, empty, very weak. This trial is not a trial, it is an ethno-political vendetta, an ethno-political lynching aimed at the past, present and future of our people.

There were so many abuses and violations that even some lawyers mentioned it, saying that the time will come when they will be ashamed of all those violations. I would also say it will be painful, because there are certain ideas, certain unwritten laws, written laws, related to faith, the violation of which, even more so knowingly, voluntarily and daringly, is never forgiven. I have also quoted a saying from their Qur’an, which says that God does not like arrogant and self-righteous, self-satisfied people, and this is very important. I think it had an effect.

There are so many such violations that sometimes it even reaches a tragicomedy. For example, the first thing that catches the eye is that they wrote in the indictment that during the search they found two metal objects, white and yellow in color, they are my gold necklace with a cross and a silver tzbeh, both of them are handmade. Now it is mentioned as some kind of metal things of white and yellow color.

Then, the so-called explanations of the witnesses are very interesting. a witness who “recognized” me first told me: you are Vitaly Balasanyan, I remember you well, you beat me, tortured me. Then everyone said that he was a different person, but this one did not rest. My defense attorney said, he is not himself, this disrespected the defense attorney, he considered him an Armenian, then he saw that the situation was complicated, he started to do some kind of simulation.

The other one who “recognized” me was a man who said that I tortured him in the winter of 1994 and said that you have not changed at all, you are the same two meters tall, with a golden beard, mustache and hair, you have not changed in any way. Pointing to that, he said that in 1993 or 1992, we were beaten in a cruel way, we were hung with our heads down, we were kept in that situation for seven days, we were beaten with iron rods and some kind of sticks.

I say even bats that have evolved for millions of years can’t hang for seven days straight, how did you hang? Do you understand, in a normal court, at least three answers should be given to them, or these people should apologize, or they should be medically examined, maybe they have some problems, or they should be considered as defamation and sued.

Nothing happened, on the contrary, they came to all the trials, many, many other sessions, and they were shown the foreground, on their television.

It was also interesting that during a preliminary investigation they brought and showed the picture of the deputy of the NKR National Assembly Davit Galstyan, they said that this is a well-known mafioso, he sold weapons. I said, that person has nothing to do with it, then it turned out that this is another Davit Galstyan, the person called “Boss Davo”. But the problem is that 73 people have already testified against that deputy and personally, as if they saw him. When I told them, they got mixed up, left, came back after about two hours, said we changed, you will say that you saved Davit Galstyan’s life.

When we were accused of illegal economic activities, they said that the unrecognized states are illegal entities and to have economic ties with them is already a crime in itself. But what happened, during the trial, the simultaneous translation device was made in Taiwan. In other words, they judge separatists using the techniques of a separatist country, but they say that it is impossible to maintain contact with those states. This is despite the fact that their leadership visited China twice only in 2025 and announced there that they recognize Taiwan as part of China.

I am telling this based on the facts, this is the situation. I think there is state and geopolitical hatred, I have also pointed it out in my speeches.

Ordinary people don’t matter, people are normal everywhere, and we really saw a lot of people here, also very normal people who treated us well. In general, there is no bad nation, for that I am grateful to all normal people. Therefore, we must tell the truth as it is. We want justice, that’s why we present all this to the international community.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our friends who were by our side during these years, both in the homeland and in the diaspora, and our friends in different countries around the world, who even have serious problems with each other. Europe and America are especially active, and that is very good.

Don’t worry, everything is still normal with us in prison and so on. Thank you very much, because that struggle is not only for us, it is for justice, human rights, democracy”, stated Davit Babayan.

[SEE VIDEO]

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