Ishkhanian also effectively joined fellow prisoner Ruben Vardanyan in calling on Armenia’s human rights ombudswoman, Anahit Manasian, to visit them and the other captives in an Azerbaijani prison. He said Manasian would thus receive more information about “blatant violations” of human rights and international law which he said occurred during the trials and criminal investigations that preceded them.
“As for these difficult times, I can only wish our people strength of spirit, will and unity, and I must say: be strong,” added the statement.
The former Karabakh Armenian leaders were captured right after the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced the region’s Armenian population to flee to Armenia. They all denied a long list of war crimes charges levelled against them. An Azerbaijani military court sentenced five of them, including Ishkhanian, to life imprisonment and gave Vardanyan and the two others 20-year jail sentences in February this year at the end of two trials denounced by Amnesty International as a “travesty.”
Ishkhanian, who served as Karabakh’s parliament speaker, cited the following excerpt from his concluding remarks at his trial which he said were cut short by the presiding judge: “This trial was opened not against 15 persons, this trial was opened against the Armenian people and the Armenian statehood with clear aims and a long-term strategy.”
Azerbaijan - Former political and military leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh stand trial in Baku, November 4, 2025.
Ishkhanian also asked Manasian to try to obtain the full text of the guilty verdict against him and share it with his family in Armenia. He said he handed in the same request to the Azerbaijani ombudswoman, Sabina Aliyeva, when she visited him in prison on Tuesday.
Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, appealed to Manasian in a statement released by his family on April 21. The prominent businessman urged her to ask Azerbaijani authorities for permission to visit the prisoners together with their relatives. The human rights defender responded by saying that she has no mandate to inspect prison conditions in Azerbaijan or any other foreign nation.
Vardanyan, who has repeatedly made defiant statements during his captivity, also accused Armenia’s government of being indifferent to the fate of the 19 Armenian prisoners held by Baku. The government has still not officially reacted to the trials, stoking opposition allegations about its complicity in their continuing captivity. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian officials insist that Yerevan has been doing its best to try to secure their release.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again branded the Armenian prisoners as “war criminals” when he addressed on Monday a European Political Community summit in Yerevan via video link. Pashinian did not respond to Aliyev, drawing strong criticism from the Armenian opposition.