Dear supporter!
Thank you for your ongoing support to this PETITION for the release of Armenian POWs and civilian hostages!
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PETITION UPDATE of 17 OCTOBER 2023
Look at the suffering and pain on the face of Vagif Khachatryan, father and grandfather, pensioner and indigenous Armenian from Nagorno-Karabakh but currently civilian hostage in Azerbaijan.
Sham trial of the 68-year-old civilian hostage Vagif Khachatryan from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) started on 13 October in Baku. The first meeting was chaired by Judge of the Baku Military Court Jamal Ramazanov.
Let us recall that since 12 December 2022, Azerbaijani regime had blockaded the Lachin (Berdzor) corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the outside world. Neither indigenous Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, nor visitors, lorries with food and medical provisions were allowed in and out of the region for over 9 months. Only the vehicles International Red Cross (ICRC) had accompanied few critically ill patients to hospitals in Armenia.
On July 29, Azerbaijani armed forces kidnapped 68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan, who was being transported for treatment from Artsakh to Armenia, at the Azerbaijani “checkpoint” illegally located in the Berdzor corridor. With the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the elderly patient was accompanied by his daughter in the Red Cross ambulance to Armenia for surgery. The ICRC ambulance was stopped at the Azerbaijani illegal checkpoint, after 15-minute investigation, the patient was abducted by the Azerbaijani forces in front of his family and ICRC official and driven away in an unknown direction. Few days later, the family was informed that Mr. Khatchatrian was in a Baku prison waiting for his trial.
On 13 October 2023 Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan stated that “he was charged back in 2013” and a decision was made to arrest him, and in the same year “an international search was announced.” Baku accuses the Artsakh citizen of “genocide, deportation of Azerbaijanis.”
In a letter sent from Baku to his family, Vagif Khachatryan wrote: “I am thinking about you, I am still alive, be healthy.” He continued to deny all charges and claimed his innocence during the illegal trial.
Unfortunately, the case of Vagif Khachatryan will not be the last one…As long as there are Azerbaijani armed servicemen near villages and towns of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh; on the roads, indigenous Armenians will continue to be in danger of being taken hostage.
The Azerbaijani regime continues to hold ethnic Armenian hostages and POWs since November 2020, whereas the Armenian side returned all Azerbaijani hostages after the Ceasefire in November 2020 during the prisoner exchange in December 2020. There are too many examples of Azerbaijan flagrantly disregarding international law and executing prisoners of war. Hundreds of Armenian hostages have been tortured, raped, and beheaded by the Azerbaijani forces without facing charges. In September 2022, Azerbaijani soldiers posted photos and videos of 5 female POWs, violently raped, decapitated. Currently dozens of ethnic Armenians – Azerbaijan recognizes only 32, but the number is probably much higher – are still in captivity in Azerbaijani prisons, held as bargaining chips to demand more territorial concessions from Armenia. These Armenian hostages are sentenced to long years of imprisonment in inhumane conditions, refused access to family lawyers, visitors, deprived of food and water, humiliated, and abused by Azerbaijani jailors. This is a direct violation of the III Geneva Convention's Article 13.
Once a month, families receive a video recording and a short note from Armenian hostages via Red Cross officials. Their monthly phone calls are monitored and restricted, unable to communicate any relevant information or news.
‘From video recordings we get, it is obvious, my husband has lost half of his weight. He is begging for help to get out, asking for food and water, but he continues to deny all charges against him’, told Linda, the Lebanese wife of Vicken Euljekjian, sentenced to 20 years after the sham trial in summer 2021. ‘My husband has not killed anyone, he is kind, innocent man and must be released immediately, otherwise he will die in Baku prison very soon’, Vicken's wife told us.
Other families we speak to regularly, whose loved ones are also sentenced to many years, are scared to disclose details about the hostage crisis fearing that the hostages will be tortured even more.
We respect their silence, meanwhile, on their behalf, we continue to raise awareness about the war crimes and the violation of the III Geneva Convention and International laws by the brutal Azerbaijani regime, that remains unpunished by the international community.
The genocidal policies of the Azerbaijani authorities continue, due to the lack of international condemnation of ethnic cleansing of Armenians by the Azerbaijani government.
THE RELEASE OF ALL ARMENIAN HOSTAGES REMAINs OUR PRIORITY, and we thank EVERY SINGLE PERSON for the support by signing and sharing this Petition, until they ALL RETURN HOME!