Ruben Vardanyan's son calls on the USA to take measures to free the Christian Armenian prisoners ahead of JD Vance's visit. Catholic Vote:
Catholic Vote, the American Catholic defense organization, referred to the upcoming visit of US Vice President JD Vance to Armenia and Azerbaijan and, in that context, the importance of the release of Christian Armenian prisoners held in Baku. The newspaper had a conversation with Ruben Vardanyan's son, Davit Vardanyna. The publication is presented below in translation.
"Vice President JD Vance is going to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ahead of the visit, the son of an imprisoned Armenian Christian calls on the Trump administration to pressure the release of prisoners held in Azerbaijan from September 2023.
In an interview given to Zeale News on February 4, Davit Vardanyan told about the arrest of his father, the famous Armenian philanthropist and former Minister of State of Nagorno Karabakh, Ruben Vardanyan. Vardanyan said that his father is one of at least 23 arrested Armenians who were illegally imprisoned by Azerbaijan after the military attack. "This was a mass arrest made at the end of the ethnic cleansing campaign of more than 120,000 Christian Armenians," Vardanyan said.
Vardanyan said his father moved to the region after the 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan to support the local Christian population, which had been "abandoned by the world." "He decided to give up his whole life and risk everything," said Vardanyan. - He tried to protect them, to live with them in the most difficult moment. And he is paying for his attempt to protect the persecuted small population by peaceful means.''
Conditions of detention
Vardanyan called the nearly 40 accusations brought against his father, including terrorist financing and illegal border crossing, fabricated and said that the trial does not provide even basic legal guarantees. According to him, Azerbaijan is trying Ruben Vardanyan in a military tribunal, which is a violation of international norms, because he never held a military position. "In fact, he has become a participant in a political show," said Vardanyan.
According to Vardanyan, independent journalists and observers are prohibited from participating in the trials, and communication with the family has been severely limited after the expulsion of the International Committee of the Red Cross from the country. The family's only contact now is through short, tightly controlled phone calls. Moreover, his father was kept in solitary confinement and subjected to violence.
Azerbaijan has not published the full list of those detained. According to Vardanyan, after the release of 4 people, there are currently 19 confirmed detainees, although the total number may be higher, which is due to the missing prisoners of war. As previously reported by Zeale News, about 80 people are still missing after the military attacks.
Vardanyan noted that the trials reflect Azerbaijan's political system, which has been controlled by the Aliyev family for nearly four decades and has no independent judiciary or free press.
Persecution of Christians in Azerbaijan
According to Vardanyan, the detainees are subject to restrictions regarding their Christian faith. During the first week of his father's detention, he was not allowed to send him the Bible and another fundamental Armenian Christian text, although the authorities did allow him to send several other books.
"But the most terrible thing," added Vardanyan, "we received information from other prisoners that those parts of the body of those with tattoos of the cross or any other type of "symbols" were burned."
Vardanyan also spoke about the many testimonies of the destruction of Armenian churches and Christian shrines in the now abandoned Nagorno-Karabakh, calling the campaign against Christians systematic and premeditated.
Freedom House ranks Azerbaijan among the most repressive countries in the world, giving the country 7 points out of 100 in its "Freedom in the World" rating. For comparison, Cuba is rated 10, Iran - 11, Venezuela - 13.
What to expect?
The issue of prisoners of war is again in the center of attention ahead of Vance's upcoming visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan. The visit is connected with the new US diplomatic initiative, the regional transport and economic plan proposed by President Donald Trump, "Trump's Way for International Peace and Prosperity".
Trump said that the basis of the visit is the peace framework announced by the White House in August 2025, which aims to end the decades-long territorial dispute over Nagorno Karabakh. Reuters reported that the framework includes mutual recognition of territorial integrity and commitments to international law.
According to Vardanyan, the August event did not lead to the signing of a peace treaty.
A framework text was pre-signed, which does not mention the arrested Armenians.
"You cannot keep Christian hostages in prison cells and expect the world to believe in real peace," he said.
Vardanyan thanked Trump and the United States for considering the protection of Christians around the world as a priority and noted that Trump previously referred to the fate of Armenian prisoners. According to OC Media, in August, Trump told Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that he intends to ask for the release of the prisoners held in Azerbaijan and said that he believed that Baku would agree.
"This is a unique opportunity to show the world again that the president and vice-president are true to their word," Vardanyan said. "The protection of Christians is one of the main priorities of this administration, not only in the United States, but around the world."
According to him, the vice president, who has publicly spoken about the worldwide persecution of Christians, can help the release of prisoners through direct contact with regional leaders.
"This is an opportunity to achieve great results with little effort," said Vardanyan. "I think that with the support of the vice president, they can be returned home."
