Some of them also said that Armenia’s government did not do enough to free and repatriate Manvel Saribekian before he was found hanged in an Azerbaijani detention facility.
The Azerbaijani authorities claimed that the 20-year-old “saboteur” committed suicide and had no traces of violence on his body. Armenian officials dismissed these claims, saying that he was tortured to death or “driven to suicide.”
They also maintain that Saribekian was a civilian resident of Tutujur, a border village in the northeastern Gegharkunik province, demobilized from the Armenian army four months before being captured by Azerbaijani troops in the area. They say he crossed a nearby section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier by accident.
“Please, bring my son back dead or alive,” cried Balian. “This is all I am asking for … My heart tells me that my child is alive.”
The mother of four also pleaded with the Armenian military to demobilize her second son currently serving in the army. “We have no breadwinner anymore,” she said. “Can they free my other son from the army?”
Saribekian’s aunt, Emma Balian, charged that the Armenian government is also responsible for his death. “They could negotiate [with Azerbaijan] and reach agreement and swap the boy with Azerbaijani prisoners of war, but they failed to do that,” she told RFE/RL. “Facts show that our leadership didn’t deal with the matter,” she claimed.
According to Balian, Saribekian’s father was not allowed into the Armenian Defense Ministry when he traveled to Yerevan late last month to inquire about his son’s whereabouts. “They told him to come back in three months,” she said.
“Azerbaijan’s sense of impunity is reaching new heights,” Stepan Safarian, a Zharangutyun deputy, told RFE/RL.
Whether the body will be sent back to Armenia anytime soon is not yet clear. The International Committee of the Red Cross reiterated through a Yerevan spokesman that it is holding “confidential” negotiations on the matter with Azerbaijani officials.