“Work to address the problems of Armenian prisoners held in Baku is ongoing,” the ministry said in a September 1 response to questions from RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Given the sensitivity of the issue, the Foreign Ministry does not consider it appropriate to make additional information about the ongoing work public.”
Last month, the ministry said Armenia had asked a “neutral” country to organize a consular visit to about two dozen Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan. It stressed at the time that Baku’s consent would be required for such a visit.
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service asked the ministry whether it had since formally appealed to Azerbaijan to allow representatives of a third country to visit the prisoners and, if so, what response it had received. The ministry was also asked to identify the country that had agreed to visit the Armenians.
Siranush Sahakian, a Yerevan-based lawyer representing the prisoners at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said organizing third-party visits is “extremely important” because the 19 captives, including eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, have been essentially held incommunicado for more than a year.
Until last year, Azerbaijani authorities allowed representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to periodically visit the prisoners to inspect their detention conditions, inquire about their health and arrange phone calls with their families. The Red Cross lost that exclusive access after being forced to close its mission in Azerbaijan in September 2025. The ECHR subsequently ordered Baku to submit information on the prisoners to the Strasbourg court.
Some of the prisoners are allowed to speak with their families by telephone only once every 40 days, Sahakian said.
Citing information received from prisoners’ families, Sahakian said some Armenians held in Azerbaijan’s prisons have injuries, although she said it is impossible to determine whether they were caused by violence.
“We have received reports about serious injuries among the prisoners,” Sahakian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Official Baku has not reported any injuries sustained by Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.
In an audio statement communicated to his family by phone and publicized last month, former Karabakh leader Davit Babayan said he and some of the other prisoners were suffering from “serious health problems.” He did not elaborate.
Last month, the wife of Lyudvig Mkrtchian, who was taken prisoner by Azerbaijan during the 2020 war in Karabakh, expressed serious concern about what she described as a sharp deterioration in his health.
Prospects for the prisoners’ release remain uncertain one year after Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a peace treaty in Washington. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian officials insist that Yerevan has been doing its best to secure their repatriation, while their critics dismiss those assurances.