“Armenian captives held in Baku are currently deprived of independent international monitoring, and no neutral body has the opportunity to verify their conditions of detention, state of health, or psychological well-being”, said Siranush Sahakyan, director of the International and Comparative Law Center, during an interview on the Yerkri Hartsy programme broadcast by Yerkir Media television. The interview addressed issues concerning the protection of the rights of captives, the absence of international monitoring of their conditions of detention, and possible legal and diplomatic mechanisms, as well as the recent return to Azerbaijan of an Azerbaijani shepherd who had crossed the Armenian border.
Speaking about the case of the Azerbaijani shepherd who crossed the Armenian border and was returned to the Azerbaijani side, Sahakyan noted that in such situations it is first necessary to establish whether the person deliberately and unlawfully crossed the border or was a civilian who had lost their way. In her assessment, “if the person had lost their way and their entry was not accompanied by criminal acts, the lawful approach is to return them,” said Sahakyan, pointing to similar cases that had occurred in the past.
She also recalled cases in which Armenians who had lost their way crossed into Azerbaijani territory, but some of them were subsequently unlawfully given the status of criminals. Rashid Beglaryan is one such example.
Referring to the cessation of the International Committee of the Red Cross's activities in Azerbaijan in September 2025, Sahakyan noted that Azerbaijan is pursuing a consistent policy aimed at restricting the involvement of international organisations with human rights protection and humanitarian mandates. According to her, at present, no independent and neutral international organisation has access to the Armenian captives to independently verify their conditions of detention, physical health, and psychological well-being. “We are talking about incommunicado detention, which means complete isolation from the outside world. This means that the Armenian hostages not only have no access to independent mechanisms, but also have no access to alternative safeguards, such as independent doctors, independent lawyers or, for example, consular officials,” said Sahakyan.
The last direct physical contact with the Armenians held in Baku took place on 24–25 December 2025. Sahakyan also stated that even the access of lawyers engaged by the Azerbaijani authorities to the captives has been restricted. Due to the existing problems concerning the independence of these lawyers and the conditions under which they operate, this mechanism, too, cannot fully serve as a substitute for independent international monitoring.
During the interview, Sahakyan also addressed the photographs submitted by Azerbaijan to the European Court of Human Rights depicting the conditions of detention of the captives. According to her, they contain no identification or evidence demonstrating that the Armenian captives were held in those particular cells. She noted that the photographs alone are insufficient to establish that the Armenian prisoners were actually held in those cells. To establish this, it would also be necessary to submit the relevant registers indicating precisely which individual was held in which cell. “We have, of course, submitted our observations, and the European Court will now assess whether the information provided by Azerbaijan is credible and, as necessary, what additional information should be requested from the respondent State,” said Sahakyan, adding that Azerbaijan periodically applies to the Court seeking the lifting of interim measures and the termination of its obligation to submit reports. However, the Court has not granted these requests to date.