Jared Genser pointed out that a draft Armenian-Azerbaijan peace treaty finalized in March reportedly does not address the fate of the prisoners and instead commits the two sides to withdrawing their international lawsuits filed against each other.
“What that means is that if the prisoners are not released by then, simultaneously with the signing of the treaty, he [Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian] won’t be able to raise the issue of prisoners going forward,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in Yerevan. “And what that means is that they will be trapped in Azerbaijan, with [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev being able to do what he wants.”
Like Armenian opposition leaders and other domestic critics of Pashinian, Genser earlier accused Yerevan of doing little to try to have the prisoners freed. Pashinian has said that his government will make only “proportionate” and “reasonable” efforts for that purpose. He has claimed that Yerevan will harm the prisoners if it acts more forcefully. His detractors say that he is simply afraid of angering Baku.
Vardanyan and seven other prisoners are former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh who were captured by Azerbaijan during or shortly after its September 2023 military offensive that forced Karabakh’s entire population to flee to Armenia and restored Azerbaijani control over the region. They went on trial in January together with eight other Karabakh Armenians, facing a long list of charges, including genocide and war crimes.
Vardanyan, who served as Karabakh premier from November 2022 to February 2023, staged a three-week hunger strike in February and March to protest against the trials described by him as a “farce.” The tycoon strongly denies all charges levelled against him.
Genser likewise insisted that the trials are a travesty of justice designed to legitimize “ethnic cleansing” carried out by Azerbaijan in Karabakh. He said he believes that guilty verdicts in them are already a forgone conclusion.
Still, the human rights lawyer said he is now more upbeat about prospects for the release of his client and the other prisoners than he was a few months ago because of what he called U.S. pressure exerted on Aliyev.
“Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio is undoubtedly going to play a key role, I think, in making sure that this process moves forward and that it can’t be further delayed,” he said.
Genser stressed at the same time that Pashinian should “encourage President Trump to make sure all prisoners are released.” “I think it’s something that he should be doing both publicly and privately,” he said.