OPEN LETTER TO WORLD LEADERS
SOS: MY HUSBAND, VICKEN EULJEKJIAN
Beirut, 2 April 2023
My name is Iman Ahmad Arous, also known as Linda Euljekjian, and I am a citizen of Lebanon and the wife of Vicken Euljekjian, civilian hostage in Azerbaijan since November 2020.
I am writing this letter pleading for your help, because my family and I are extremely concerned that the Azerbaijani authorities could have murdered my husband. We are unable to verify reports circulating on social media that my husband "was tortured to death in jail."
International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), the only organisation to visit Armenian hostages in Azerbaijan, has neither confirmed nor denied these allegations. The Red Cross told yesterday they are ‘investigating these reports with the Azerbaijani authorities’. So, I am asking for the help of world leaders and human rights organisations to find out whether my husband is alive or dead, and if he is alive, to demand his immediate release, as he is innocent and in imminent danger.
I have no news from my husband for two and half months. The last time I was allowed to speak with him dates back to January 27, 2023. I have not heard from him since and I am concerned that he is being tortured in the Azerbaijani jail.
My husband holds dual citizenship of Armenia and Lebanon, he was born in Beirut in an Armenian family. We were married in the Catholic Church in 2000 and have two children, 20-year-old Christine and 23-year-old Serj. After the economic crisis in Lebanon, my husband applied and received his Armenian passport in April 2018, and moved to Armenia. He was planning to start his business, get a house and later to move our teenage children to Armenia to start a new life. He bought a Honda-7 seater with a bank credit, and worked as a driver before the military aggression of Azerbaijan on 27 September 2020.
My husband was captured alongside a friend of ours, Maral Najarian near the town of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh on 10 November 2020. They were driving back to their hotels to pick up their personal belongings, that they had left and fled to safety. It reportedly happened 10 hours after the ceasefire agreement was signed on midnight on 10 November, when many citizens were unaware, that Shushi was handed over to Azerbaijan. As there were no road signs warning Armenian nationals not to enter to Shushi, many civilians travelling to Shushi were captured on 10 and 11 November by Azerbaijani forces and taken to Baku prisons. Maral told me that after being brutally beaten, Vicken was transferred with her to a Baku prison, alongside a dozen of Armenian hostages.
On 10 November 2020, Vicken’s car was stopped by two Azerbaijani soldiers, he was in his civilian clothes, after searching his car, there were no weapons found in the car. His car and all his belongings, computers, watch, cash was confiscated by Azerbaijani soldiers. Later in November 2020, in the Baku court hearing, Azerbaijan falsely accused him of “being a terrorist and a mercenary, as well as having illegally entered Azerbaijan”.
Four three months we did not know if they were alive or dead, finally the Red Cross visited Maral on 10 February 2021. One month after that visit, Maral Najarian was released on 10 March 2020 and returned to Lebanon. However, my husband, who was captured with her in civilian clothes and without any weapon, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by Baku Courts, following sham trials without receiving adequate legal representation by a human rights lawyer on 14 June 2021. My husband repeatedly claimed his innocence in Court but was not allowed to appeal by the Azerbaijani authorities.
Maral Najarian, the second Lebanese-Armenian hostage, released exactly two years ago, told me that Vicken was tortured to make false statement and to say that he was receiving money from the Armenian government. Azerbaijani authorities also forced Maral to testify against him and say that he is a terrorist suspect. But this is not true, my husband was not paid, and like thousands of civilians, he volunteered to defend his country, when Azerbaijani forces attacked Artsakh on 27 September 2020.
When the war started, my husband was in the Shushi hotel opposite the Cathedral, with his suitcases, he was waiting for his flat to be ready to move in. Maral Najarian and her sister were in Berdzor hotel, waiting to move to their house, allocated to Armenians of Lebanon after the Beirut blasts of August 2020. But when the war started, the three of them moved back to Yerevan in Armenia. Maral and her sister have testified many times that Vicken never received payment and only volunteered to join the defence after the military aggression of September 2020, but was never deployed and returned to Yerevan after three days in early October.
Currently, Vicken is spending his sentence in solitary confinement in one of the world’s most notorious prisons near Baku. Since his arrest, I have had very limited communication with my husband. The only organisation that can visit my husband is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), that should visit him once a month, but this is not happening regularly.
For several months we have no news from my husband, and no other organisation or lawyer or diplomat is allowed to visit him. Maral also told me that the last time she saw Vicken in Baku, his hands were deformed, and the bones of his hands were visible. This shows how he was tortured. Every time I spoke with him, he was in extreme duress, and he sounded sick and exhausted. I know that my husband is still ill-treated and in pain, he needs medical assistance.
Since we got married, I have learnt some Armenian and my mother language is Arabic. But when my husband calls from his Baku prison, the Azerbaijani authorities do not allow me to speak in Arabic, and this makes difficult to communicate because my Armenian is very limited. Vicken is not allowed to speak on the phone more than couple of minutes under strict control. During his calls in November 2022 and January 2023, he was crying and begging me: ‘get me out of here quickly, I can’t take it anymore.’
In January I received only a 50 second video recording of him via the Red Cross official. My husband is 43-years-old but he looks 80, he has lost lots of weight. I don’t know anything about his physical and mental health, but he suffers from a heart condition and a dislocated disc in his back.
Please see this article for more details about Vicken's imprisonment and mistreatment in Azerbaijan: https://providencemag.com/2023/03/20491/
According to the Ceasefire Agreement of 10 November 2020 which was supposed to suspend the military aggression by Azerbaijan, all prisoners of war had. Armenia has returned ALL Azerbaijani prisoners of war in December 2020, one month after the Ceasefire during the first exchange. But Azerbaijan is still holding dozens and probably hundreds of Armenian civilian hostages and soldiers, and capturing more hostages, which is a gross violation of the Third Geneva Convention for the treatment of POWs.
I'm appealing to world leaders to help my family to find out whether my husband, Vicken Euljekian is still alive and allow a visit by human rights organisations and family lawyer. I'm also begging you to do everything in your power to secure the immediate release my husband, Vicken Euljekjian and ALL Armenian hostages held illegally in Azerarbaijani jails, before it is too late to save their lives.
Thank you for your support in the defence of human rigths and the basic human right to live...
Yours sincerely,
Iman Ahmad Arous, also known as Linda Euljekjian
My email address: lindadia8085@gmail.com