International BNEINTELLINWS periodicalHe touched upon the illegal trials in Baku, presenting the assessments of Human Rights and International Criminal Law, Professor to his son Victoria Massimino and Ruben Vardanyan's son David Vardanyan.
"The accusations against Ruben Vardanyan and others are pure political. In the general context of Armenians, especially Artsakh Armenians, these accusations are based only on political motives.
They are invented by Azerbaijan, "said Victoria Massimino, a lawyer, lawyer, human rights and international criminal law.
Massimino is one of the four lawyers on behalf of which the Center for Truth and Justice in California has applied to an Azerbaijani visa to attend trials. They have not yet received a response from Baku, but it is unlikely to be important. Massimino says that as a result of the trial, the probability of achieving justice is "zero". "I tend to often quote Freedom House report on Azerbaijan. The country has collected that country to seven. It is an absolutely free country, and in the last report of Freedom House, the blockade of Artsakh and the persecution of Armenians are one of its main reasons. Thus, these are demonstration trials. They are absolutely unfair and are based on political accusations, "says Massimino. Vardanyan gave dozens of interviews to international media about the deteriorating conditions on Karabakh day by day, making Azerbaijan's anger, which has repeatedly targeted Vardanyan through fierce rhetorical attacks.
His son believes that this propaganda forced Baku to target him special way. "I think that the level of attention that my father focused on Nagorno Karabakh after it decided to live there, he did not enter into the Azerbaijani action plan.
They hoped to slowly make it impossible to live, and people would gradually go out, so let's say, saying some kind of "quiet ethnic cleansing."
Therefore, it is very obvious that they were dissatisfied with the injustices that are currently affected, "said David Vardanyan." After all, Baku received its opportunity to punish Ruben directly. One opportunity, of which the Azerbaijani government is clearly pleased.
By holding such demonstrations against Ruben and his 15 compatriots, Azerbaijan hopes to scare its muscles and intimidate both its neighbors, Armenia and its own citizens. This is a loot for Azerbaijan. They finally have the leaders of the Artsakh government, who have been struggling for self-determination for so long, "Massimino said.
According to the newspaper, despite the obvious lack of justice or the proper judicial process in these trials, they have hardly caused any international response.
With the exception of the PACE resolution, which calls on Azerbaijan to release both the Armenian leaders of Karabakh and many Armenian prisoners of war by Baku, there have been fewer statements by Western countries, if, of course, there have been any.
"The lack of attention to [these trials] is amazing me by the international community. "Caviar diplomacy" and the energy resources of Azerbaijan, oil and gas are contributing to it.
They have strong ties with many European countries, which is also a conflict that has received much less attention since 2020 than other conflicts. I do not understand why the media did not pay so little attention to the blockade. They block the nine months of the whole people, and no one pays attention, "says Massimino.
In the absence of significant international pressure, it seems clear that Azerbaijan will continue the trials. Massimino says that in response, Western countries should take significant steps. "In addition to talking about the problem, [Western countries must begin to reconsider their economic relations with this authoritarian regime. The level of impunity, which Azerbaijan enjoys, is very high.
Therefore, one of the options would be the severance of some economic ties to force the regime to release these prisoners, both prisoners of war, and former leaders, "says David Vardanyan that Azerbaijan has become completely unavailable. .
"They are now even threatening to deprive the lawyer, whom we have found a hard time to protect the interests of my father.
They rejected all the motions of the lawyer, to extend the trial, to get internet access, everything that could allow him to prepare properly. They fully ignore both international law or even their own laws.
All we have to do is try to make this false trial visible to the public as possible. "
