Paris City Hall Displays Portraits of 19 Armenian POWs Held in Azerbaijan

The faces of 19 Armenians held in Azerbaijan are now displayed outside Paris City Hall, placing their cases before thousands of residents and visitors in the center of the French capital.

The exhibition, organized by the City of Paris and the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations in France, known as CCAF, opened Monday and will remain on display through Sept. 4.

The installation draws attention to Armenians imprisoned in Azerbaijan following the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh, and the mass displacement of its Armenian population in September 2023. Among those detained are former political and military leaders of Artsakh.

Organizers say the public display is intended to keep pressure on Azerbaijan for their release while also drawing attention to the displaced population’s right to return.

“The 19 portraits exhibited in Paris today are not just faces of prisoners,” CCAF co-chair Mourad Papazyan said. “They are living testimonies of the history of Artsakh, its political life and the rights of its people.”

The exhibition builds on years of support for Artsakh from the French capital.

In 2020, the Paris City Council called on the French government to recognize the independence of the Republic of Artsakh. Three years later, as Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor deepened a humanitarian crisis in the region, Paris organized humanitarian aid for its Armenian population.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo traveled to Armenia in August 2023 with a French delegation accompanying humanitarian aid intended for Artsakh. The convoy reached the Armenian side of the Lachin Corridor but was prevented from entering the region.

Months later, after Azerbaijan’s September military offensive forced more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee Nagorno-Karabakh, the Paris City Council unanimously granted honorary citizenship to the people of Artsakh.

French political pressure over the Armenian detainees has continued at both the national and local levels.

On Feb. 3, France’s National Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the release of Armenians held in Azerbaijan. In July, the Corsican Assembly adopted its own resolution supporting Artsakh and demanding the release of Armenian detainees.

Nice also displayed portraits of Armenians held in Azerbaijan on the facade of its City Hall in December 2025, calling for their immediate release.

The issue has also reached European institutions. In an April 2, 2025, resolution, the European Parliament called for the release of Armenian prisoners held by Azerbaijan and addressed the right of displaced Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh to return to their homes.

That right was also addressed by the International Court of Justice shortly after the 2023 exodus.

On Nov. 17, 2023, the court ordered Azerbaijan to ensure that people who left Nagorno-Karabakh after Sept. 19 and wished to return were able to do so “in a safe, unimpeded and expeditious manner.”

Nearly three years later, the Armenian population forcibly displaced from the region has not returned.

For CCAF, the portraits outside Paris City Hall are meant to ensure the prisoners — and the wider consequences of the 2023 displacement — remain visible internationally.

“As long as the Armenian captives are not free, their faces will continue to remind the world that justice cannot be replaced by oblivion, and human freedom by political agreements,” CCAF co-chair Ara Toranyan said.

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