Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh, Davit Babayan, has conveyed a message from the Baku prison through his family members, addressing Armenians around the world, people of goodwill, human rights advocates, defenders of human rights, and journalists. Babayan stated that, in the absence of alternatives, he decided to issue a message. He spoke about the violations that have taken place over the course of three years. The former foreign minister considered it necessary to publicly state that his letters addressed to the Azerbaijani Court of Appeal have disappeared, so that the case may also be reviewed in the Court of Appeal. “My lawyer informed me about this on May 7, saying that it was the final day for submitting applications. This, of course, came as a surprise, because the last day should have been February 25, and on February 23 I had sent two applications from the detention facility, and another letter through the head of the detention facility. And all of that has disappeared, it does not exist. I was forced to write yet another letter, but I do not know the response, therefore it cannot be ruled out that they may attempt to prevent me from submitting my applications to the Court of Appeal. Besides that, during the transfer from the detention facility to the prison on April 21, my final statement in the court of first instance was also confiscated. This too is nothing other than a step aimed at destroying all critical statements,” Babayan expressed concern, requesting that the international community take note of these facts and that international courts admit the proceedings.
Davit Babayan asked the entire Armenian nation and people of goodwill for help: “demand, ask that our final statements also be provided to you in video form, if they have not already been destroyed.” According to him, the trials taking place in Baku are fabricated, and the norms of humanity, justice, fairness, international law, and even Azerbaijani legislation have been grossly violated. “This ‘trial’ is not a trial, this is an ethnopolitical vendetta, an ethnopolitical lynch directed against the past, present, and future of our people,” said Babayan.
In his message, Babayan presented the violations committed during the “trials,” noting that they were so many that even some lawyers mentioned them. “There are so many of these violations that at times they even reached the level of tragicomedy. For example, the first thing that catches the eye is that in the indictment they wrote that during the search they discovered two metallic objects in my possession - white and yellow in color. These are my gold necklace with a cross and a silver rosary, both handmade. Now they describe them as some metallic objects of white and yellow color. Then, the explanations of the so-called witnesses are very interesting: one witness who first ‘recognized’ me said to me, ‘You are Vitali Balasanyan, I remember you well, you used to beat and torture me.’ Afterwards everyone told him that it was another person, but he would not calm down. My defender said, ‘It is not him,’ and this person insulted the defender, called him Armenian, then realized the situation had become complicated and began pretending something.
Another person who ‘recognized’ me was someone claiming that I had tortured him in the winter of 1994, saying, ‘You have not changed at all, your two-meter height is the same, with golden beard, mustache, and hair, you have not changed in any way.’ He too, pointing at us, said: ‘They beat us brutally in either 1993 or 1992, hung us upside down, kept us in that state for seven days, beat us with iron rods and some sticks.’
I said, even bats, which have undergone millions of years of evolution, cannot remain hanging continuously for seven days, so how did you remain hanging? Do you understand? In a normal court at least three responses should be given to this: either those people should apologize, or they should undergo medical examination, perhaps they have some problems, or it should be considered slander and legal proceedings should be initiated against them,” said the former Foreign Minister of Artsakh, also noting that those “witnesses” not only remained unpunished, but were also shown prominently on television.
Davit Babayan presented another case, when during the preliminary investigation they brought and showed him a photograph of National Assembly deputy of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Davit Galstyan, saying that he was a well-known mafioso who sold weapons. “I said that person has nothing to do with that, then it turned out that this was another Davit Galstyan — the person known as ‘Patron Davo.’ But the issue is that 73 people have already testified against that deputy and allegedly personally saw him. When I explained this, they became confused, left, and after about two hours came back and said, ‘We changed it, you will say that you saved Davit Galstyan’s life,’” Babayan said.
According to him, Azerbaijan accuses Armenians of illegal economic activity, saying that unrecognized states are illegal formations and that maintaining economic relations with them is itself a crime, but “what happened is that during the trial the simultaneous translation device had been manufactured in Taiwan. That is, they are trying separatists while using the technology of a separatist country, yet they say it is forbidden to maintain relations with such states. This despite the fact that their leadership visited China twice in 2025 alone and declared there that Taiwan is recognized as part of China,” Babayan recounted all this based on facts. According to him, there is state-level, geopolitical hatred.
Davit Babayan also particularly noted that ordinary people are not connected to any of this, and that there is no such thing as a bad nation at all, expressing gratitude to all normal people. In addition, Babayan expressed gratitude to all the friends who stood by him throughout these years, both in the homeland, in the diaspora, and throughout the world.