Regarding the "trials" against the leaders of the Republic of Artsakh, which have started in Azerbaijan, the Armenian National Congress announces.
1. We express our unconditional support to the former leaders of Artsakh: Presidents Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, President of the National Assembly Davit Ishkhanyan, Minister of State Ruben Vardanyan, Commander of the Defense Army Levon Mnatsakanyan, Deputy Davit Manukyan, Foreign Minister Davit Babayan and illegally imprisoned and in Azerbaijan to our other compatriots who are being held as hostages by the Azerbaijani authorities just to realize the right of self-determination of the people of Artsakh are subjected to severe persecution and torture.
2. The legal process of realizing the fundamental right of self-determination of one's own people outside of Azerbaijan was started and consistently continued precisely because the Republic of Azerbaijan systematically violated the rights of life, freedom, and democracy of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region and its population, carrying out state-organized mass violence, as well as conducting brutal military operations against the Armenian population not only in Nagorno-Karabakh, but also in the entire territory of Azerbaijan (February 1988 in Sumgait, November in Kirovabad, Khanlar, Shamkhor, in January 1990 in Baku, in 1991 during the Koltso operation in 24 settlements of Nagorno Karabakh, in 1992 in the Mardakert and Martuni regions of Shahumyan and Nagorno-Karabakh).
3. The leaders of Artsakh were illegally captured by Azerbaijan in September 2023, in gross violation of international norms and obligations assumed by Azerbaijan, at the exact time when Azerbaijan, violating all the agreements reached in negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE and the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020, was implementing was one of his biggest war crimes against the Armenian people, against the Armenian nation with a history of thousands of years ethnic cleansing and genocide.
4. This judgment taken by the Azerbaijani state, which has shown such behavior, declared systematic Armenian hatred as a state ideology, persecutes even its own citizens and massively violates their democratic rights, has more than 200 political prisoners according to international human rights organizations, is a mockery of justice, which lacks any legitimacy.
The law enforcement agencies and courts operating in Azerbaijan are just tools of repression by the government, which are ready to extract any result ordered by the authorities through lies, violence, torture, threats and various other illegalities, therefore any "document" or "testimony" presented in those trials, as well as any conclusion of a "judicial" body will have zero credibility and legitimacy.
5. We condemn any accusation or criticism made in the public debate of Armenia, directed against the behavior of our compatriots who have become hostages in the hands of Azerbaijan and are being tortured under the conditions of this "trial" presentation. We should not be interested in what they say under inhuman pressure, but only in their life, health and safe return to the homeland.
6. The silence and inaction of the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, the United States of America, France and Russia, regarding the fate of the captured leaders of Nagorno Karabakh is unacceptable. They should first demand the freedom of those people whom they have recognized as legitimate partners in all negotiations since the 1992 Helsinki meeting of the OSCE and conduct a dialogue with them on behalf of the bodies representing the international community.
7. Most unacceptable, however, is the apparent and absolute indifference of the Armenian authorities regarding the fate of the captured leaders of Artsakh. Armenia is obliged to publicly raise its voice in their defense, to make the issue of their release one of the mandatory requirements of the Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation and peace establishment agenda. The authorities of Armenia should address this issue to the international community, Minsk Group countries, and also raise this issue in the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe and the European Parliament, especially demonstrating the inalienable right to a fair trial guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. open violation by Azerbaijan.
