ArmInfo. International human rights lawyer Jared Genser has posted the following message on his X account:
"Dear Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, please see this post from President Donald Trump's NSA Mike Waltz. He emphasizes not only the need to finalize the peace treaty with Azerbaijan but ALSO for the release of the Armenian Christian prisoners. I trust you fully agree with the Trump Administration on this key point."
On March 16, Vardanyan's family published the third and final message from Ruben Vardanyan from the Baku dungeons. In it, Vardanyan shares a personal story that became one of the key lessons in his life. We present it with slight abbreviations: "
"Today I want to share with you one very personal story that played a huge role in shaping me as a person. And it happened to me in Azerbaijan almost 39 years ago.
"I, like all young men who reached 18 years of age in the Soviet Union at that time, even if they were students, was drafted into the Soviet Army, and I, having completed my first year at Moscow State University, at the end of June after passing my exams, found myself at a recruiting station in Moscow. After long adventures, at the beginning of July, I and several hundred other people ended up in the suburbs of Baku, in Balajari. That was the first and only time I found myself in the Azerbaijan SSR. It was a distribution point.
Then a warrant officer came up to me and offered to send me to serve in Armenia for 300 rubles. That was a lot of money then, and I said I didn't have that amount. Three days later, when we were about to be finally assigned to military units, he came up to me again and said, okay, give me at least 50 rubles, apparently not having found anyone else. I replied that I only had 27 rubles. He left dissatisfied, saying that it was impossible.
I told this story to the guys I had met during our long journey from Moscow to Baku. Just as a funny episode. Suddenly, 15 minutes later, six or seven guys, after consulting, came up to me and gave me 23 rubles and said that they wanted me to at least serve at home, and they would be happy about that, and they smiled.
I knew that they were giving away their last money - stashes for cigarettes, because none of them were from well-off families, and three or five rubles were very significant money for them. So, thanks to guys I hardly knew - I only knew one of them briefly from Moscow State University - of a different nationality, who owed me nothing, I went to Armenia and served two years in Leninakan.
Many times I thought about this episode in my life and asked myself three questions. Am I ready to give my last money or my last piece of bread to help someone else? Not one million out of a billion, but really my last. Secondly, will I be able to rejoice in the fact that someone will go home to serve because of you, and you will remain in an unfamiliar environment and will longingly remember your homeland, your native places and loved ones, whom you may not see for two years? And thirdly: am I ready not to expect gratitude in return (we did not even exchange addresses) and not to feel that someone owes you for what you did?
This story became one of my reference points, which shaped me as I am now.
Firstly, today I would like to express enormous words of gratitude to them, not knowing whether they are alive and how their fate turned out. But if they hear my story, they should know that I always remember those 23 rubles, that they did it for me absolutely selflessly and I will never forget it. Secondly, I want you to know that thanks to you I understood that doing good is not an investment, but simply doing it, passing on like a baton what others have done for you, and being happy about it. And I am happy that my wife and I have given almost all of our wealth to charity and our children have understood and accepted this.
I am convinced that good is eternal and immortal and it increases many times over when you do it anonymously and do not expect anything in return. And in my life, many people I know and do not know have done this, and I am very grateful to them. And I have tried to do this as much as I can.
Evil is of course mortal and therefore so aggressive, spectacular and attracts attention. Because it increases and becomes stronger when you respond to evil with evil. And it is easier for people to discuss, unfortunately, and remember the bad than the good, to gossip and write books, make films. It is more diverse and attracts more attention even in the news. We read more bad news than good.
But remember: if there were less good, light, love than evil, the world would have ceased to exist long ago. Giving everything you have, know, and can do to others, without hoarding, without becoming a slave to the golden calf, your passions and desires - this, in my opinion, is the meaning of life, a question that so often torments many of us, because this is how we increase the good and light in the world for everyone.
We come into the world naked and leave naked, taking nothing with us to the grave. Even the pharaohs could not avoid this. Forgive as we want to be forgiven when we do something wrong, and do not demand punishment from others, but ask forgiveness for yourself. And do to others as you would like to be done to you - this is the golden rule."