Because they are Armenians
They are soldiers captured on the war field during the last 2 attacks on Artsakh by the Azerbaijani army, or civilians, sick kidnapped from the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) vehicle during a transfer to the hospital, or peasant lost on the outskirts of his village, kidnapped and thrown into prison. They are political leaders, presidents, ministers, or president of the Parliament of democratic and self-determined Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh): they all wanted to defend their people against a genocidal state which has repeatedly given in its history proof of his desire to annihilate the Armenians through pogroms and deportations.
23 Armenians are currently interned in Baku, recognized as prisoners by Azerbaijan. They are state hostages because their release, as for their already released companions in misfortune, is conditioned by blackmail and political and territorial transactions. Their prison conditions are loosely controlled by the ICRC which visits them every 5 weeks and establishes a link with the families in Armenia.
80 victims of forced disappearances
Like this military doctor responsible for caring for the wounded on the war field, who was last seen wounded in the knees and captured by the enemy, nearly 80 Armenians were seen or filmed alive and captured, then disappeared in nature. Their fate remains unknown, since the new occupants of Artsakh deny their existence. Some of them appear on videos of summary executions. Were they all executed? The existence of clandestine prisons in Azerbaijan is persistently mentioned by opposition circles to the petro-dictatorship: are the Armenians forcibly disappeared interned there? Are they held by civilians who exploit them? Are they victims of human or organ trafficking?
Racism as a state ideology
These questions will not be answered without a serious investigation carried out in Azerbaijan itself. But the will to uncover the truth is definitely lacking in the Aliyev regime, to the great despair of the families of the 300 missing civilians and soldiers, and the 80 forcibly disappeared, with the cause being anti-Armenian racism elevated to the rank of doctrine of State, serving as the driving force behind the dictatorship and the senseless irredentism of a fascist regime.
Psychological support for released hostages
However, the released hostages do not emerge unscathed from this traumatic and even dehumanizing experience, made up of physical and psychological violence – torture, humiliation and abuse of all kinds, including sexual abuse.
In December 2023, a group of 32 prisoners of war from the Lori and Shirak regions were released in return for Armenia’s lifting of its right to veto Azerbaijan’s candidacy to host COP29 in Baku. Since then, psychologists from the International Red Cross of Armenia (ICRC) have testified to the devastating effects of post-traumatic stress on these former hostages, causing new psychological suffering which is an obstacle to their return to normal life. We can add to these the rejection by Armenian society of these ex-prisoners often accused of having “lay down their arms without fighting”, or even of not having committed suicide so as not to fall into the hands of the enemy. …Result: misunderstood by everyone, unable to work, ex-prisoners of war, isolate themselves, and remain on the margins of society, overwhelmed by insurmountable psychological and social problems.
Alongside the continuation of its campaign to sponsor prisoners by cities and international NGOs, it is to bring these ex-hostages back to life that the LIBERTAS Collective has set up a psychological aid program, in partnership with the ICRC. of Armenia (International Committee of the Red Cross), the INTRA Mental Health Center of Professor Khachatur Gasparyan and the Center for International and Comparative Law of Masters Siranush Sahakyan and Artak Zeynalyan. This program is aimed at released prisoners of war and their families, women and children, the weak link in the social chain, and victims of the psychological disorders and frustrations of their suffering loved one. A second program is being developed with specialized foundations to support the families of hostages currently interned in Baku.
Judicial farce and political trials
As a general rule, the charges brought against internees are based on the age and status of the hostages: thus, elderly prisoners are systematically charged and sentenced for war crimes and genocide, with the idea to legitimize the existence of the “Khojalu genocide”. In all cases, these accusations only appear some time after an often fortuitous or accidental capture, crediting the thesis with invented arguments for each case. Among the multiple charges against Rouben Vartanyan, we note that of “financing terrorism” to designate the financing by the famous philanthropist of cultural and educational actions in Artsakh. In 2021 Viken Euljekjian was accused of being a mercenary because he is of Lebanese nationality. He is serving a 20-year sentence in Baku jails.
Lawyer Siranush Sahakyan’s observation of previous trials and the testimonies of the released prisoners concluded that the trials were unfair and trampled on the basic rights of the Armenian defendants: the meetings of the assigned Azerbaijani lawyers with the defendants were of a formal nature, and their activity remains ineffective. They are probably frightened by the sanctions that await them in the event of insubordination to the unfair rules established for their role as “defender”. The prosecution files are in Azerbaijani, translated orally to the accused. No information on the charges is sent to the families. In addition, foreign lawyers of
defense are prohibited from practicing in Azerbaijan. Jared Genser, Rouben Vartanyan’s American lawyer, was even banned from entering Azerbaijan: any communication with his client is prohibited.
Nuremberg trials Azerbaijani style
After having shown its credentials to the participants of COP29 in November 2024, the petro-dictatorship is now preparing to put on a spectacle for the world of its “Nuremberg trial”, by trying 15 state prisoners/hostages in the coming weeks, including 8 former leaders of the self-determined Republic of Artsakh. The charges (terrorism, war of aggression, arms trafficking, illegal border crossing, illegal formation of armed units, crimes of “genocide”, crimes “against the Azerbaijani people, etc.), and the convictions previous ones pronounced since 2021, reveal the intention of the Aliyev regime to delegitimize the emancipation of the people of Artsakh from Azeri supervision.
However, without wishing to delve into the question of the legitimacy of self-determined Artsakh, let us simply recall that over the 28 years of mediation by the OSCE Minsk Group, Azerbaijan negotiated for 22 years for a solution to the conflict integrating the principle of self-determination of Artsakh. Aliyev’s demand to dissolve the Minsk group as a prerequisite for a hypothetical signing of a peace treaty with Armenia certainly continues this intention to definitively erase this embarrassing past, and to succeed in thus consecrating the unilateral decision of Parliament of Azerbaijan in August 1991 to annex the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
These 23 hostages, like their already released companions in misfortune, paid with their freedom for their dedication to the idea of a democratic and independent Artsakh, in the face of a racist and bloodthirsty dictatorship. We have a duty to protect them.
On the eve of these trials, of which no one doubts their political character intended to validate by the international community both the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Artsakh, and the future aggressions of Armenia by Aliev, the LIBERTAS collective calls for solidarity with the state hostages, interned or released . He calls on major human rights organizations to oppose the arbitrariness of the petro-dictatorship of Azerbaijan.
At this decisive moment in our history, the level of collective action that we can generate during these trials will be an index to measure our sense of responsibility in the face of state racism, oppression and discrimination. who had once created the powerful momentum for the emancipation of the Armenian people of Karabakh.
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