Ruben Vardanyan All-ASA Statement

Ruben Vardanyan All-ASA Statement

The All-Armenian Student Association, which represents over 5,500 Armenian students across over 40 organizations worldwide, calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ruben Vardanyan and all other Armenian political prisoners and hostages unlawfully detained in Azerbaijan.

Ruben Vardanyan is a highly regarded entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist whose extensive contributions to humanitarian, educational, and developmental initiatives have had a profound impact both within and outside of the Armenian community. Among his most notable endeavors is the establishment of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, a globally recognized effort dedicated to advancing human rights, as well as his instrumental role in developing the United World Colleges school in Dilijan, which has fostered cross-cultural education in Armenia since 2014.

Vardanyan permanently relocated to Nagorno-Karabakh shortly before Azerbaijan launched its ten-month-long unlawful blockade of the Lachin Corridor—the sole lifeline that connected the region to Armenia and the outside world. He soon assumed the role of State Minister at a critical juncture as Azerbaijan escalated its campaign of humanitarian devastation by deliberately cutting off Nagorno-Karabakh’s access to essential resources such as food, energy, and medical supplies.

Following Azerbaijan’s full-scale invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh and the ensuing ethnic cleansing of over 120,000 indigenous Armenians in September 2023, Azerbaijani forces intercepted and unlawfully detained Ruben Vardanyan at the Lachin corridor. He was subsequently charged with 44 undisclosed counts of terrorism and deprived of the opportunity to mount an adequate legal defense. Vardanyan has since spent more than 520 days in custody in Baku, enduring 340 days in solitary confinement and an additional 23 days in a so-called "punishment cell" where conditions are intentionally designed to inflict maximum psychological and physical duress. In protest to his unjust imprisonment and the fabrication of evidence against him by Azerbaijani authorities, Vardanyan initiated a hunger strike that stretched for 23 days.

“What is occurring in the courtroom cannot be characterized as a trial—this is a political spectacle, during which my right to a fair hearing is being willfully ignored.” 

Even prior to the targeted expulsion of the indigenous Christian Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan was consistently ranked by Freedom House among the ten least free countries globally, with its capacity for political rights currently assessed by a score of 0 out of 40. Firsthand testimonies by Azerbaijani political prisoners and Armenian hostages from Nagorno-Karabakh, supported by credible reports from human rights organizations, highlight a persistent pattern of torture and gross mistreatment during incarceration and throughout the Azerbaijani judicial process, with interrogations by Azerbaijani police identified as exceptionally brutal and coercive. 

In a bid to suppress international scrutiny and draw the curtains over its human rights abuses, Azerbaijan recently expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and several other international organizations from operating in the country. As one of the few organizations capable of providing humanitarian aid and impartial oversight for the detained Armenian political prisoners and hostages, the ICRC's expulsion directly undermines Vardanyan’s guaranteed rights under the Geneva Conventions. Additionally, Vardanyan has been subjected to coercion, forced to sign falsified case materials, and denied a fair trial, in direct contravention of his protections against arbitrary detention as outlined in Articles 9 and 14 of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Ruben Vardanyan’s imprisonment by Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime represents a flagrant violation of due process and international law in-line with dictator Ilham Aliyev’s pattern of contempt for fundamental human rights. Allowing these injustices to go unchallenged only enables their persistence and deepens the erosion of legal and moral norms not just in Azerbaijan, but also the rest of the world. We strongly believe that any meaningful effort by the United States to strengthen stability and peace in the Caucasus and the Middle East must include securing the release of Ruben Vardanyan and all Armenian political prisoners and hostages unlawfully detained in Azerbaijan.

As such, the All-Armenian Student Association calls upon the community to:

1. Contact your Senators, Representatives, and the President, urging them to protect Christian rights and heritage as a national priority. 
   1. Submit the form to become a Rapid Responder for Armenian issues on the American legislative front at marchtojustice.org/new-congress/issue-form/0;
   2. Call the US State Department Azerbaijan Office and urge for action: 202-647-9677
2. Connect with prominent community members and celebrities to fund and support Ruben Vardanyan’s team.
3. Amplify Ruben Vardanyan’s story on social media, conduct direct outreach to journalists, human rights activists, and publish op-eds in your school papers.
   1. Contact journalists to cover Azerbaijan’s false judiciary at https://www.libertas2020.com. 
4. Co-sign this statement as an organization by visiting tinyurl.com/ASA-RV2025 

Let the world hear Ruben Vardanyan’s name.

Signed,

All-Armenian Student Association