Vicken Euljekjian, an Armenian from Lebanon, who was captured by Azerbaijani forces on November 10, 2020 near Shushi, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and is being held illegally by Azerbaijan was transferred to a hospital, Asbarez reported.
This was reported by Eulkekjian’s 18-year-old daughter, Christine, and mother, Beatrice, who have spoken from Beirut about their latest telephone conversation with Vicken, as he was transferred from prison to hospital.
Christine Euljekjian has had to grow fast in the last six months. She speaks with composure and maturity and has become the voice of an Armenian family longing for the return of a son, a brother and a father whose only crime was to dream of a better future in Armenia.
These dreams were shattered when the war against Artsakh was launched unexpectedly by Azerbaijan. Unaware that the city had already been taken over, Vicken was captured the day after the ceasefire agreement near Shushi. On 10 November 2020, with Maral Najarian, Vicken drove to Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh, to collect his belongings from his Shushi hotel before the handover of the town to Azerbaijan. They were stopped by Azeri forces and transferred to Baku in a bus with many other Armenian captives, civilians and soldiers. Maral Najarian was released in March 2021, whereas Vicken remains in captivity, where he is facing criminal charges by Azerbaijan.
Representatives of the International Red Cross were permitted to visit Vicken in prison only in February 2021. ICRC has facilitated sporadic communication between him and his family in Beirut, exchange of letters and notes. In April, Vicken was allowed to telephone his family for the first time in five months. He told them he was treated well, and that his paperwork was being dealt with for his release in three months.
These hopes were once again crushed, when on May 5, weeks after these much anticipated phone calls, Azerbaijan’s State Security Service announced that Vicken Euljekjian’s investigation was completed and that his case was sent to court. He is being charged under Article 114.3 (participation of a mercenary in a military conflict or military operation), Article 214.2.1 (terrorism committed by a group of persons, an organized group or a criminal organization) and Article 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan). However, the European Court of Human Rights has not been notified of his case so far.