Pashinyan questions handover of letters for Armenians in Baku

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commented on the handover to the Armenian government of 1,254 letters addressed to ethnic Armenians who were arrested for serious crimes committed on Azerbaijani territory and are currently being held in Baku. Speaking at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting, Pashinyan called the move a political stunt and said the letters should have been sent to their recipients through the international postal service rather than handed to the government.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that on October 1, Artak Beglaryan, a former representative of the dissolved illegal regime and separatist structures, submitted to the Armenian Government Staff letters said to have been collected from various countries. The campaign was reportedly organized on the initiative of Veronika Zonabend, the wife of separatist Ruben Vardanyan, whose trial is currently underway in Baku.

Reacting sharply to the initiative, Pashinyan questioned the organizers’ purpose:

“I do not know exactly what decision the government has made on this, but frankly, this approach is very strange. If letters have been written, why are they not being sent through the international postal service? International postal services operate for this purpose. Why should the government act as an intermediary here? How does it make sense to bring thousands of letters to the government and say, ‘Deliver these’?” Pashinyan said.

The Armenian prime minister added that such campaigns aim more to create domestic political tension and stage a spectacle in Yerevan than to resolve existing legal and political issues. Pashinyan said the authorities were acting cautiously on sensitive matters and seeking not to harm the complex negotiation process with official Baku.