Pashinian declined to say what exactly the government is doing for that purpose when he answered questions from opposition members of the Armenian parliament. He again claimed that Yerevan will harm the prisoners if it acts more forcefully.
One of those opposition lawmakers, Agnesa Khamoyan, brandished a picture of Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian billionaire and philanthropist standing trial in Baku along with seven other former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh. Vardanyan, who went on hunger strike just over two weeks ago, looked gaunt and unwell in the latest footage of his trial disseminated by Azerbaijani state media.
“The prime minister’s duty is to focus not just on one person but also on Armenia’s state interests and the interests of Armenia’s citizens, including focusing proportionately, reasonably on solving one person's problems,” replied Pashinian. “If there is an [opposition] goal to change this logic, then I would say that it is an unachievable goal.”
Critics say that Pashinian is simply scared of angering Baku and jeopardizing his appeasement policy on Azerbaijan.
The Armenian government waited for more than a month to denounce through Foreign Ministry Ararat Mirzoyan the “mock trials” of Vardanyan and the other Armenians. The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan stepped up Mirzoyan’s carefully worded criticism on February 28 as it faced protests by activists accusing the government of doing little to get Baku to free the Armenian captives.
Vardanyan’s American lawyer, Jared Genser, on Tuesday urged Pashinian to do “much more” for their release. In particular, he said, Yerevan should ask international organizations to send “trial monitors” to Baku and link the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal with the prisoners’ release.
Pashinian appeared to rule out such actions during his government’s question-and-answer session in the National Assembly. Khamoyan wondered whether he has appealed to any foreign governments or international bodies so far. He did not answer that question.
Critics accused Pashinian last fall of helping Baku legitimize Vardanyan’s continuing imprisonment with his scathing comments about the tycoon. Speaking during a news conference last August, the Armenian premier wondered who had told Vardanyan to renounce Russian citizenship and move to Karabakh in 2022 and “for what purpose.”
Pashinian seemed to echo Azerbaijani leaders’ earlier claims that Vardanyan was dispatched to Karabakh by Moscow to serve Russian interests there. Vardanyan hit back at him in a September statement issued via his family.