The son of an Armenian Christian philanthropist who has been imprisoned in neighbouring Azerbaijan said “none of us are safe” saying his father was a victim of “ethnic cleansing”.
Ruben Vardanyan, one of the country’s richest men, is facing 42 charges in what his son David calls a “kangaroo trial” with “several undefined due process violations.”
Ruben made international headlines after setting up the Aurora Humanitarian Prizewith George Clooney. However, David told GB News his father is currently being held illegally in Azerbaijan.
Now, David has criticised international media for “turning a blind” eye to cases like his father’s.
Ruben Vardanyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative has been imprisoned
GETTY
George Clooney, Co-Chair of the Selection Committee and Aurora Prize Co-Founder Ruben Vardanyan pictured in 2016
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David told GB News: “We found out about his detention via social media on September 27, 2023, which was done very intentionally by the Azerbaijani Government to show every Armenian Christian that none of us are safe.”
Ruben was arrested in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in Armenia, where 120,000 people were driven out, in a forced displacement in 2023 that David called an “ethic cleansing” where churches and other Christian sites were destroyed.
“He was leaving as part of the civilian exodus, and he was detained at that border crossing. Ever since then, he’s been detained as a political dissident” David said.
Despite his detention, David told GB News his father remains “stoic” about the situation.
Ruben was arrested in September 2023 as he tried to leave for Armenia
State Border Service of Azerbaijan
David said: “Several times he’s tried to say that he doesn’t want to complain about the conditions of his detention, because this would divert attention from the illegal nature of the whole procedure.
“There’s been semi-regular calls that we have with him for a couple of minutes once or twice a week at most, sometimes it’s been less, sometimes it’s been twice a week, but there’s no sort of regularity about them.
“Before we have access to him with video messages through the International Red Cross. But recently, there was an announcement to close the office of the International Red Cross in the country, which obviously would limit us even further in our communication.
“My daughter was born during his detention, so we hope that he’ll be able to meet her in the near future. But he became a grandfather without being able to see his granddaughter, which is obviously quite sad for us, but we’re hopeful that in the future, things will change.”
Human rights lawyer Jared Genser told GB News from Washington that Ruben has been denied access to a bible.
“This goes against the narrative of the Azerbaijanis, that this conflict has nothing to do with the fact they’re Christian but instead that it is about illegal occupation of the land,” he told GB News.
Genser also took aim at the lack of global coverage of the incident, saying the world’s media has focused eyes on other conflicts including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, while “ignoring” the plight of Christians in the region, adding “what has happened with this ethnic cleansing and the caucuses has not attracted a lot of global attention.”
However, he was also quick to praise President Donald Trump, who he said has been “quite engaged and helpful” in working towards freedom for Christian Armenians, adding that current Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has “no interest” in peace.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with China’s President Xi
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Genser added: “In October of 2023, as he was running for President again, [Trump] had put out a post on Truth social that specifically and explicitly said that he condemned what took place in Nagorno-Karabakh as an ethnic cleansing.”
He drew a direct comparison between Trump and the previous Biden administration, where he said the Democrat “was very much focused on getting to a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
The human rights lawyer described how “the problem that held for us, advocating for Reuben and the other prisoners, was the fact that neither side, neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia, wanted to prioritise what took place in Nagorno-Karabakh or the release of their prisoners.
“Aliyev has no interest in getting and doing anything at all, because this is just, you know, for him, a culmination of decades of efforts to, you know, ethnically cleanse the region.”
