Pashinyan Doesn't Want the POWs Back: The Political Threat of Artsakh Leaders
Pashinyan has no interest in freeing Armenian POWs. They're too popular, too politically threatening. And Aliyev knows it.
Among the most damaging allegations leveled against the Pashinyan regime is the suggestion that it has abandoned Armenian prisoners of war held in Baku. Major-General Davit Manukyan, former commander of the Artsakh Defense Forces, recently sent a letter from his Baku cell accusing Pashinyan of complicity. Davit Ishkhanyan made similar accusations. Multiple other Artsakh leaders, including Ruben Vardanyan, remain in Azerbaijani custody. The Armenian government offers only platitudes during press conferences about “diligently working” on their behalf, but tangible progress is nonexistent.
Asbed articulates a blunt conclusion: Pashinyan does not want these POWs and political prisoners back. The reason is political survival. These individuals, particularly the military and civilian leaders of the former Artsakh entity, are enormously popular in Armenia. They led the defense of a nation; they are symbols of resistance and national pride. If they were released and returned to Armenia, they would immediately become focal points for anti-Pashinyan political movements. Artsakh leaders like Ruben Vardanyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, and Davit Manukyan carry legitimacy that no opposition politician currently in Armenia can muster. Their return would pose an existential threat to Civil Contract’s political monopoly.
Hovik goes further, suggesting the possibility of a tacit understanding between Pashinyan and Aliyev on this point. Both leaders benefit from keeping these prisoners in Baku. Aliyev uses them as leverage and as trophies. Pashinyan uses their absence from Armenia as a way to prevent the emergence of rival power centers. The longer these leaders remain imprisoned, the safer Civil Contract remains from internal political challenge. This is a horrifying calculus, but one that explains the government’s passivity on prisoner issues and its acceptance of Aliyev’s demands. For Armenia’s families, the cost is immeasurable: loved ones remain imprisoned indefinitely, victims of a political bargain struck between two governments that have more in common with each other than with their own populations.
Transcript
Asbed Bedrossian: To me, it's clear as day that Pashinyan does not want these POWs back. He does not want them released, period. They are very popular leaders in Armenia. They are very popular, there's a huge amount of empathy, and they will spell trouble for Civil Contract politically if they are released and they come back to Armenia. And we cannot exclude the probability that Pashinyan and Aliyev are definitely on the same wavelength regarding these Artsakh leaders in jail from the very start.