BY ARDASHES “ARDY” KASSAKHIAN
As talks of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan dominate headlines, one glaring omission remains—the Armenian captives still held in Azerbaijani prisons. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s silence on their fate is as deafening as that of those in Armenia and leaders in the diaspora who prioritize political access over moral obligation. Beyond Armenia’s internal failures, the global community’s indifference to this sham trial emboldens authoritarian regimes worldwide.
Sixteen former Artsakh leaders, including former Presidents Arkadi Ghukasian, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as philanthropist-turned-official Ruben Vardanyan, are facing a grotesque display of victor’s justice. They have been slapped with 2,548 fabricated charges, including “terrorism” and “genocide,” despite no credible evidence linking them to any crimes. The only thing they haven’t been accused of—yet—is breathing while being Armenian.
Vardanyan, who was on a 23 day hunger strike which he ended last week, is being held alongside these former leaders under conditions that violate every international legal norm. Their trial is nothing more than political theater, a tool of retribution designed to erase the leadership of Artsakh and crush any future resistance. The proceedings are closed to independent media, and the accused are represented by state-appointed lawyers, making a fair defense impossible. Amnesty International has documented forced confessions and fabricated evidence, yet the world remains silent.
This is not justice—it is punishment for defiance. Azerbaijan’s courts are not functioning as judicial bodies but as instruments of political persecution. Even neutral observers recognize these trials as nothing more than a means to eliminate opposition and cement Azerbaijan’s narrative on Artsakh. While it stages sham trials against Armenian leaders, it ignores its own war crimes, including the executions of Armenian POWs and mutilation of civilians—horrors widely documented and even celebrated in Azerbaijani media. The brutal 2004 murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan remains a chilling example of Azerbaijan’s state-sanctioned hatred. Margaryan, who was attending a NATO training program in Hungary, was axed to death in his sleep by Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov. Safarov not only avoided punishment but was extradited to Azerbaijan, pardoned, promoted, and celebrated as a national hero. If Azerbaijan truly cared about justice, Safarov would have stood trial—not Artsakh’s leaders.
Azerbaijan’s pattern of targeting critics and dissenters extends beyond Artsakh. Alexander Lapshin, a Russian-Israeli blogger, was imprisoned in Azerbaijan in 2017 for the “crime” of visiting Artsakh and writing about it. After being illegally extradited from Belarus, Lapshin was beaten and tortured in an Azerbaijani prison. In what was clearly an attempted assassination, he was found unconscious in his cell with strangulation marks on his neck—an “attempted suicide,” according to Azerbaijani officials. He barely survived and later exposed the abuse he suffered. If this is how Azerbaijan treats a foreign journalist, imagine the fate awaiting Armenian prisoners in its custody.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan continues to exploit these sham proceedings for both domestic and international gain. At home, it stirs nationalist sentiment and distracts from its authoritarian rule. On the world stage, it allows Baku to posture as a country upholding the rule of law, even as it weaponizes the legal system against Armenians. International watchdogs like Human Rights Watch have long documented Azerbaijan’s practice of jailing journalists and opposition figures on trumped-up charges. Now, the same tactics are being used to crush what remains of Artsakh’s leadership. Yet, world leaders do little more than issue weak statements. The European Union, the United Nations, and the United States—so often vocal about judicial abuses—have failed to act. Even as U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz called on Azerbaijan to free all Armenian prisoners, it doubled down on the peace agreement by stating that Azerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia must finally be resolved but did not mention anything about Armenians’ right to return to Artsakh or the status of numerous religious sites that now Azerbaijan claims as its own.
Perhaps it’s fear of meddling too much in affairs which the White House sees as Russia’s sphere of influence, or maybe Azerbaijan’s oil wealth shields it from serious consequences, silencing even those who claim to champion human rights. Time will tell if these statements have any serious impact in Azerbaijan. But it’s more than likely that they won’t. After all, at the COP29 Environmental Conference in Baku, global leaders walked the halls discussing climate policy while Armenian prisoners languished in cells beneath their feet and while members of the United States Congress were berated and harassed in the streets of Baku simply for showing support for the Armenian people.
This trial is not about reckoning with war crimes—it is about rewriting history. It is a victor’s court, designed to retroactively justify ethnic cleansing and eliminate any political opposition to Aliyev’s regime. The forced exodus of 130,000 Armenians from Artsakh has already happened; now, their leaders face a legal lynching. Ruben Vardanyan’s warning must not be ignored: “Lasting agreements can only be reached by those who are strong, with a country that has an honorable and dignified elite.” But where are our elite today? Where are Armenia’s leaders, who should be demanding the release of their countrymen? Their silence is a betrayal—one that history will not forget.
This sham trial is a test—not just for Armenia, but for the world. Will justice be a universal principle or merely a tool for the powerful? The answer will determine whether this mockery of a trial remains an isolated injustice or a dangerous precedent for the future. If the world allows victor’s justice to stand, it sets a chilling precedent: the law belongs not to the righteous, but to those with the bigger army and deeper pockets.
Now is the time for Armenians and people of good conscious around the world to act. It is not enough to grieve or express outrage in private circles. Every Armenian must remind their government, their community, and the world that Azerbaijan is not a democratic state—it is a terrorist state and a petroleum-based autocracy. We must demand that the Armenian government stand firm, reject silence, and call for the immediate release of our political prisoners. The diaspora must pressure international institutions, boycott Azerbaijani propaganda, and expose this sham trial for what it is—an assault on justice, human rights, and the Armenian nation itself. Aliyev’s dictatorship thrives on the assumption that no one will resist. It is up to us to prove him wrong.
Ardashes “Ardy” Kassakhian is a current council member and former Mayor of Glendale. During his tenure as Mayor, Glendale signed an agreement to become a sister city with Martuni, Artsakh. He is a lecturer of political science and former Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region.
