NextFin News - Armenian opposition lawmaker Tigran Abrahamyan issued a sharp rebuke of the Pashinyan administration on Monday, accusing the government of allowing a "complete information blockade" to settle over Armenian prisoners of war and political detainees held in Azerbaijan. The criticism, delivered as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) winds down its physical presence in Baku, highlights a growing domestic rift over the fate of dozens of Armenians still in Azerbaijani custody following the 2023 collapse of the Nagorno-Karabakh republic.
The closure of the ICRC office in Baku, initiated at the request of Azerbaijani authorities, has removed the last independent window into the conditions of the detainees. Abrahamyan, a member of the National Assembly, noted that while Azerbaijani state media previously released selective and often distorted footage of the prisoners during their trials, even this filtered stream of information has dried up. The lack of visual or verbal confirmation of the prisoners' well-being has left families and human rights advocates in a state of strategic blindness, a situation Abrahamyan claims the Armenian government is doing little to rectify.
The detainees in question include not only rank-and-file soldiers but also eight former high-ranking political and military leaders of the defunct Nagorno-Karabakh administration. These figures were captured during the lightning offensive in September 2023 and have since faced a series of what Armenian legal experts describe as politically motivated trials in Baku. Human rights defender Siranush Sahakyan has previously warned that at least 80 cases of enforced disappearances remain unresolved, suggesting the actual number of captives may far exceed the figures officially acknowledged by Azerbaijan.
The diplomatic friction is compounded by the shifting priorities of U.S. President Trump’s administration, which has signaled a preference for rapid regional stabilization over protracted humanitarian disputes. This geopolitical pivot has emboldened Baku to consolidate its legal and physical control over the captives without significant pushback from Western mediators. For the Armenian opposition, the government’s perceived passivity is not merely a diplomatic failure but a calculated move to clear the path for a final peace treaty with Azerbaijan, even if it means leaving the prisoner issue unresolved.
The legal landscape for the prisoners has darkened significantly since the ICRC’s access was curtailed. Without regular visits from international observers, the ability to monitor for torture or ensure basic standards of detention has vanished. Azerbaijani courts have already handed down lengthy sentences to several detainees, effectively transitioning them from "prisoners of war" to "convicted criminals" under domestic law, a move that complicates future exchange negotiations. The Armenian government continues to insist that the return of all captives remains a priority, yet the lack of a visible strategy to counter Baku’s information blackout suggests a widening gap between official rhetoric and the grim reality on the ground.
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