Families of Armenian POWs Demand Answers After Security Chief’s Trip to Baku Yields Nothing

Relatives of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan are growing increasingly frustrated and concerned after the recent trip of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) head, Andranik Simonyan, to Baku. The visit, which took place over the weekend, was officially framed as participation in an international conference organized by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service.

The trip is being criticized because Azerbaijani authorities continue to hold at least 23 Armenian captives, including eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, without releasing them. Simonyan, who also leads Armenia’s interagency commission on prisoners and missing persons, returned to Yerevan without providing any public updates on the fate of those in captivity.

Relatives of the prisoners had hoped that Simonyan’s visit would bring progress toward their release or, at the very least, provide reliable information about their health and conditions in Azerbaijani prisons. Instead, they say they remain in the dark. “We expected him to bring some news to us,” one relative told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Another added, “We don't know anything about what they [the Armenian authorities] are doing. They come and go for themselves. They don’t keep people informed about what's going on.”

This lack of transparency has left the families demanding a meeting with Simonyan to directly address their concerns and seek answers about his trip.

The situation for Armenian prisoners remains uncertain, even after the initialing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty in Washington on August 8. Neither the treaty nor a separate declaration signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House included a commitment from Baku to free the captives. This glaring omission has fueled domestic criticism against the Armenian government, with some accusing officials of failing to take effective action to secure the release of their citizens.

For years, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) provided limited oversight of the prisoners’ conditions, allowing periodic visits, health checks, and communication with their families. The last such visit took place in June. However, the ICRC ended its mission in Azerbaijan on September 3, leaving families with even greater concern about the treatment of their loved ones.

The ongoing captivity of Armenian prisoners shows Azerbaijan’s refusal to abide by international norms and human rights obligations. Despite high-level diplomatic exchanges, Baku continues to use Armenian captives as leverage, showing a clear disregard for the lives and well-being of civilians and former leaders from Nagorno-Karabakh.

The families of the captives, the Armenian government, and the international community now face mounting pressure to ensure that Azerbaijan honors basic humanitarian principles and releases those who remain imprisoned. Until this happens, the shadow of injustice continues to hang over the lives of these Armenians and their loved ones.

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