Legal expert: peace demands addressing humanitarian issues

PanARMENIAN.Net - Yeghishe Kirakosyan, head of the International Courts and Arbitration Master's Program at Yerevan State University, emphasized the essential role of international legal mechanisms in protecting the rights of Armenian captives and hostages held in Baku.

“International judicial processes are crucial. Once you remove them from the broader picture, all you're left with is the Baku trial,” Kirakosyan said, as reported by Panorama.am .

He warned that trials in Baku are set to continue, pushing a one-sided narrative.

Kirakosyan expressed hope that international legal proceedings will remain ongoing, as they provide vital security guarantees, primarily by safeguarding the rights of detained individuals.

“In my professional view, peace must also involve directly addressing humanitarian issues. That’s how I see it,” he added.

In September 2023, following a nine-month blockade and the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh's Armenian population, Azerbaijan captured former Artsakh presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan, along with former state minister Ruben Vardanyan, foreign minister David Babayan, and other former officials. The fabricated charges against them could lead to life imprisonment. On January 17, a politically motivated trial began in Baku against Artsakh’s former leadership.