MP urges release of Armenian detainees at OSCE PA

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lilit Galstyan, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) Bureau and an MP from the Hayastan parliamentary faction, urged participants at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in The Hague to call on Baku to immediately release all Armenian detainees.

Galstyan announced the appeal on her Facebook page.

Speaking before the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, she said that over the past four years she has consistently raised two key issues: what she described as Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh and democratic backsliding in Armenia, Sputnik Armenia reported.

“At our annual session in Porto, I proposed sending an international mission to Baku to monitor the trials of former Nagorno-Karabakh political leaders, which I described as sham proceedings, and to assess the continuing destruction of Armenian cultural heritage. No one supported the proposal. By failing to act, we allowed Azerbaijan to continue its violations.

Today, at least 19 Armenians, including Ruben Vardanyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, Davit Manukyan and others, remain unlawfully detained. They continue to face torture and inhuman treatment, while even the International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access,” Galstyan said.

She argued that these developments are not isolated injustices but part of a broader policy that includes the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, the forced displacement of its indigenous population, the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage, and the promotion of the so-called “Western Azerbaijan” concept, which she said is being used to advance territorial claims against Armenia.

Galstyan stressed that failing to respond adequately to Azerbaijan’s policies weakens the very principles on which the OSCE was founded.

She also said Armenia continues to face serious democratic challenges. According to Galstyan, international organizations have expressed concern over the concentration of power and the weakening of democratic institutions.

“The parliamentary elections in Armenia were portrayed as a geopolitical choice. However, the majority of Armenian voters rejected externally imposed concessions, crimes against democracy, a deepening authoritarian system, political arrests and prosecutions, as well as unconstitutional attacks against the Armenian Apostolic Church,” she said.

Galstyan called on the assembly to “monitor democracy in Armenia, demand the immediate release of all Armenians unlawfully detained by Baku, ensure the protection of Nagorno-Karabakh’s cultural heritage, and reaffirm the guaranteed right of its indigenous population to return.”

She emphasized that these steps are not only a moral imperative but also a legal obligation.

A court in Baku sentenced Ruben Vardanyan to 20 years in prison.

Former Nagorno-Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan was sentenced to life imprisonment. Former Defense Army Commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, former First Deputy Commander Davit Manukyan, former Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, and former parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanyan also received life sentences. Former Nagorno-Karabakh presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Madat Babayan and Melikset Pashayan were sentenced to 19 years in prison, Garik Martirosyan to 18 years, Davit Alaverdyan and Levon Balayan to 16 years, while Erik Ghazaryan, Gurgen Stepanyan and Vasily Beglaryan each received 15-year prison terms.