June 11, 2024

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE

June 11, 2024

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts.

AZERBAIJAN

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak out against Azerbaijan’s unlawful detention of Armenian prisoners of war and alarming record of rampant human rights violations.

On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military attack against Nagorno-Karabakh to gain full control over the territory, causing a mass exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians—virtually all of the region’s ethnic Armenians—as well as the regional government to capitulate.

Azerbaijan then falsely denied that it forced people to leave and insincerely promised that it will peacefully reintegrate the region and guarantee the rights of ethnic Armenians.

Instead, even after their surrender, Azerbaijan punitively arrested and detained leaders of the former Karabakh Government, including former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, who is here as he is being arrested by Azerbaijan military officials.

Also, ex-Presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan, Foreign Minister David Babayan, Parliament Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, and former generals, Levon Mnatsakanyan and Davit Manukyan. These eight former officials have been held in pretrial detention for more than 8 months. And just last month, Azerbaijani authorities extended the detention with another 5 months—without a trial, without due process—and Azerbaijan has routinely resorted to hostage diplomacy, prolonging unlawful detention and using prisoners of war as bargaining chips to impose its demands on Armenia, in clear violation of international law.

In fact, Azerbaijan is still holding dozens of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian political prisoners that it took captive during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. And, additionally, widespread reporting - including from Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Federal Rights, and the US Department of State - calls attention to the terrible treatment of political prisoners by Azerbaijan.

Former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan alone has faced punitive extended stays in solitary confinement, poor prison conditions, denial of water and clean clothing, and orders that require him to stand for hours on end. There is no justice in Azerbaijan’s actions, only a sickening display of abuse of human rights and freedoms. In every instance, Azerbaijan must be held accountable for their actions.

Even as Azerbaijan continues to hold Armenian prisoners of war, this body cannot overlook their long-standing campaign to undermine democracy and silence critics of the Aliyev government.

In the same way that I call out human rights abuses and anti-democratic behavior by countries like China, Cuba, and Iran, we must call out Azerbaijan’s abysmal human rights record and continued detention of prisoners of war and call on President Aliyev to release these prisoners of war immediately.

I yield the floor.