Washington Post columnist calls on U.S. president to facilitate  release of Ruben Vardanyan from Baku prison 

ArmInfo. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius addressed the ongoing sham trial of former Artsakh state minister and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan in Baku and called on US President Donald Trump to fulfill his promise to help Christians. 

With so much suffering in the world, individual cases can get lost.  But I want to explain the plight of a man named Ruben Vardanyan, who  is a political prisoner on trial in Azerbaijan and is facing a life  sentence - and whose case deserves greater attention.

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Vardanyan's crime, if you can call it that, is that he championed  Armenian resistance in Nagorno- Karabakh, a remote region in the  Caucasus that is legally part of Azerbaijan but whose population was  once largely Armenian and self-governing. Not anymore: The region's  120,000 Armenians fled in September 2023 when Azerbaijani troops  invaded. Vardanyan was arrested as he tried to cross the border into  Armenia.

Vardanyan is an unlikely martyr. He is a businessman who made money  as an investment banker in the wild early days of post-Soviet Russia  - and then began giving it away to good causes. In 2014, he founded  an international school in Dilijan, Armenia, to connect his small and  fragile country with the world. And in 2015, he co-founded a human  rights group called the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, whose  supporters include such luminaries as George Clooney, former U.N.  high commissioner Mary Robinson and several Nobel laureates.

Aurora's motto is "Gratitude in Action." Vardanyan's idea was to  honor the memory of people around the world who are selflessly  helping others today, just as decent people helped Ruben's  great-grandfather, Hmayak Vardanyan, in 1915 during the Armenian  Genocide. Instead of looking back on this terrible event with anger,  Vardanyan wanted to look forward with hope, celebrating the best of  the human spirit.

I should make clear that I'm not a neutral observer of Vardanyan's  case. He has been my friend for a decade, and I've served as unpaid  master of ceremonies for Aurora's annual awards ceremony since 2016.   It's personal: My father's family is Armenian and, by helping Aurora,  I wanted to share my own gratitude for those who saved my ancestors  in Ottoman times.

To give you a sense of Aurora's work, here's a quick sketch of the  people it has honored since 2016: a Tutsi woman in Burundi who  rescued Hutu victims there; an American physician in the Nuba  mountains in Sudan who treated patients in that remote killing  ground; a Rohingya Muslim lawyer who protected his people during the  slaughter in Myanmar; a Yazidi activist who rescued kinsmen being  murdered by the Islamic State; two Somali women who saved victims of  sexual violence in Mogadishu, and a woman activist and a doctor, both  Congolese, who saved rape victims.

I can remember each of these people as they took the stage at the  Aurora awards ceremony. They were often awkward, with little  experience speaking in public, unaccustomed to taking credit for  their work.  Each year, I would come away from these ceremonies  grateful for the enduring, inexplicable goodness in the human spirit  that produces heroes like these. Vardanyan and the other two Aurora  co-founders, the late Carnegie Corp. president Vartan Gregorian and  Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan, were always humble in the presence  of these humanitarians.

Vardanyan's trial began a week ago in Baku. Azerbaijan has brought 46  charges against him, ranging from terrorism to organized crime. But  his troubles really stem from his decision to move to Karabakh in  2022 and become a senior minister in the breakaway government there,  as well as an outspoken defender of the Armenian population. Throwing  himself into this vortex was dangerous. But Vardanyan told his  daughter that he couldn't live with himself if he didn't try to help  fellow Armenians who have suffered so many tragedies in their  history. It was gratitude in action.

Disaster followed. Azerbaijan imposed a blockade in December 2022,  starving Karabakh of medicine, fuel and other essentials. Armenians  tried to protect their homes, families and churches. But when  Azerbaijan's military invaded in September 2023 they fled, leaving  the region ethnically "cleansed." Vardanyan has been in an  Azerbaijani prison cell ever since, along with three former  presidents of Karabakh.

"Ruben was obsessed about saving Karabakh's Armenian character, and  he paid with his freedom for that dedication," says his friend Vahan  Zanoyan, an Armenian American energy consultant who now lives in  Armenia. Ten days before Azerbaijan's invasion, Zanoyan phoned and  urged Vardanyan to leave. He refused. Zanoyan texted him again as  troops entered Karabakh's capital. By then, it was too late.

An Amnesty International official said last month that Vardanyan's  case "has raised serious allegations of human rights violations which  include ill-treatment in detention, being coerced to sign falsified  case materials and denied the opportunity to prepare his defense."  The statement by Marie Struthers, the group's director for Eastern  Europe and Central Asia, urged: "The international community must  closely monitor this high-profile case, to ensure Ruben Vardanyan's  fair trial rights and justice."

Jared Genser, a prominent American human rights lawyer who is  representing Vardanyan, hasn't been allowed to visit his client in  prison. "This is a political show trial," he told me. "It's a result  of his advocacy for the political rights of the people of  Nagorno-Karabakh."

Most Americans don't know much about Armenia, let alone the Karabakh  conflict. But here's a central fact: Armenia was the first nation in  the world to adopt Christianity, and it has paid dearly for its faith  in a predominantly Muslim region. Vardanyan himself is a faithful  Armenian Orthodox Christian, but he has always been ecumenical in  spirit. Indeed, many of the humanitarians who received the Aurora  prize have been Muslims.

As Vardanyan's trial moves forward, perhaps he will have a friend in  Washington. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on  Oct. 23: "When I am President, I will protect persecuted Christians,  I will work to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing, and we will  restore PEACE between Armenia and Azerbaijan."

Here's your chance to deliver on that promise, Mr. President, by  helping a decent man escape persecution.

On January 17, under the chairmanship of Judge Zeynal Agayev, the  Baku Military Court began considering the "indictment" against the  former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh. Among the accused are three  former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh: Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako  Sahakyan and Arayik Harutyunyan. Also appearing before the court will  be former Foreign Minister David Babayan, Speaker of the Parliament  David Ishkhanyan, former Commander of the Defense Army General Levon  Mnatsakanyan, General David Manukyan and former State Minister Ruben  Vardanyan.

On January 16, Vardanyan made a statement in which he demanded that  he and his lawyer be given the opportunity to fully prepare for their  defense; that all violations and falsifications be eliminated; that  the trial of him and all the other accused be made public. "I insist  on a maximally open trial with the participation of international  journalists and representatives of humanitarian organizations. I am  convinced that only a real court, and not a trial, will help take a  step forward on the difficult path of building new relations between  our peoples," he emphasized. In conclusion, he demanded that his case  be combined with the cases of other defendants. "More than 400  volumes of my case out of 422 are episodes of a common case.  Separating my case into a separate proceeding is an artificial and  unfounded decision," Vardanyan added.