Yesterday, Davit Ishkhanyan, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh and an Armenian hostage held in Baku, issued a voice appeal from prison to Armenia’s Human Rights Defender, calling for intervention on behalf of the Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan and requesting assistance in obtaining the full Armenian and Azerbaijani texts of the indictments and verdicts issued against them.
Responding today, Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan questioned the purpose of such a visit and stated that her mandate cannot be exercised on the territory of another state.
Her remarks drew criticism from Ishkhanyan’s family.
According to Armen Ishkhanyan, the son of Davit Ishkhanyan, the family has met with Armenia’s Human Rights Defender only once during his father’s more than two-and-a-half years in Azerbaijani captivity, and that meeting took place solely at the family’s own initiative.
“We raised several issues, and she promised to provide answers, but to this day we have received none,” he said.
Armen Ishkhanyan also stated that the families of all Armenian prisoners held in Baku are prepared to travel to Azerbaijan themselves in order to visit their relatives.
“It is not only Ruben Vardanyan’s family that has expressed readiness. We, the families of all the prisoners, have also expressed our willingness to go,” he said.
According to him, the absence of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Azerbaijan has left families unable to send food or hygiene supplies, while also depriving them of information regarding detention conditions.
In his appeal published yesterday, Ishkhanyan stated that the trials against the Armenian prisoners in Baku were conducted with serious violations of human rights and international law. He argued that the case was “not against 15 individuals,” but rather “against the Armenian people and Armenian statehood.”
