Human rights lawyers tell GB News that Ruben Vardanyan has been  denied access to a Bible in a Baku prison

ArmInfo.  The son of Armenian philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, David, has criticized the  international media for "turning a blind eye" to cases like the one  that happened to his father. As David Vardanyan told GB News, "none  of us are safe", emphasizing that his father was a victim of "ethnic  cleansing".

"We found out about his detention via social media, on September 27,  2023, which was done very intentionally by the Azerbaijani government  to show every Armenian Christian that none of us are safe," said  David Vardanyan. Despite the detention, David noted, his father  continues to remain " stoic" about the situation.

"Several times he has tried to say that he does not want to complain  about the conditions of his detention, because this would divert  attention from the illegal nature of the whole  procedure. There's  been semi- regular calls that we have with him for a couple of  minutes  once or twice a week at most, sometimes its' been less,  sometimes it's been twice a week, but there's no sort of regularity  about them. Before we have access to him with video messages through  the Red Cross. But recently, there was an announcement to close the  Red Cross  in this country, which obviously would limit us even  further in our communication.  My daughter was born during his  detention, so we hope that he will be able to meet her in the near  future.  But he became a grandfather without being able to see his  granddaughter, which is obviously quite sad for us, but we are  hopeful that in the future, things will change," David said.

Human rights lawyer Jared Genser told GB News from Washington that  Ruben has been denied access to a Bible.  "This goes against the  narrative of the Azerbaijanis, that this conflict has nothing to do  with the fact that they are Christians, but instead that it is about   illegal occupation of the land," he told GB News.  Genser also took  aim at the lack of global coverage of the incident, saying the  world's media has focused eyes on other conflicts including the wars  in Gaza and Ukraine, while "ignoring" the plight of Christians in the  region, adding "what has happened with this ethnic cleansing and the  caucuses has not attracted a lot of global attention."

However, he was also quick to praise President Donald Trump, who he  said has been "quite engaged and helpful" in working towards freedom  for Christian Armenians, adding that current Azerbaijani President  Ilham Aliyev has "no interest" in peace.

Genser added: "In October of 2023, as he was running for President  again, [Trump] had put out a post on Truth social that specifically  and explicitly said that he condemned what took place in  Nagorno-Karabakh as an ethnic cleansing." The human rights lawyer  described how "the problem that held for us, advocating for Reuben  and the other prisoners, was the fact that neither side, neither  Azerbaijan nor Armenia, wanted to prioritise what took place in  Nagorno-Karabakh or the release of their prisoners.  "Aliyev has no  interest in getting and doing anything at all, because this is just,  you know, for him, a culmination of decades of efforts to, you know,  ethnically cleanse the region."