“My husband is our hero. We love, respect and admire him deeply.”
Testimony of Linda, wife of prisoner Vicken Euljeckjian.
Vicken Euljeckjian is one of the few civilians illegally detained in Azerbaijan following the 44-day war in Artsakh.
Born in Beirut to a family of Armenian Genocide survivors, Vicken moved to Armenia from Lebanon in 2017 due to the unstable economic situation.
Linda, his wife and mother of his two children Serge (23 years old) and Christine (20 years old), bears witness from Beirut to the ordeal the family has been going through since 2020.
What was your husband doing before the 2020 war?
“ Vicken ran a cafe in Beirut for the last few years he was in Lebanon ,” Linda says.
In 2015, Vicken decided to settle in Armenia. Two years later, after several trips back and forth between Armenia and Lebanon, he decided to settle in Armenia with his family. With their daughter set to finish her studies in 2019, Linda will remain in Lebanon with their children for the time being.
In Armenia, Vicken started working as a taxi driver, then decided to open a restaurant with a colleague, Maral Najarian. Because of Covid, they had to close the restaurant and Vicken returned to his taxi driving business.
“ The situation was becoming increasingly precarious. At that time, the Artsakh government offered a housing assistance program to anyone who wanted to move to Artsakh. Vicken managed to get a place to live in Shushi, and Maral Najarian - in Stepanakert.
We were supposed to join him in September 2020, but the war broke out and Vicken left for Yerevan.
During the last days of the war, Vicken and her colleague went to Artsakh to collect their belongings. They first went to Stepanakert, where Maral lived, and then headed to Shushi.
But as soon as they arrived in Shushi, the Azerbaijani military arrested them. And when they searched my husband's phone, they found photos of him in military uniform, which was enough evidence to arrest them both ," Linda explains.
How did you learn that he had been taken prisoner?
"We had no news from him for a month. It was on Lebanese television that I learned that my husband was alive and in captivity in Gobustan prison in Baku. After eight long months without news, I finally received a letter from Vicken through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Under torture, Maral was forced to cooperate with Azerbaijani authorities who dictated a confession to the effect that Vicken had received $2,500 for his services as a “mercenary” during the war.
It should be noted that mercenary activity is a proven fact concerning Azerbaijan: Baku did indeed use Pakistani and Syrian mercenaries during the war in Artsakh in 2020. Armenia had managed to capture some of them, who were subsequently tried for “terrorism”. In order to defend themselves, the Azerbaijanis therefore needed to accuse Vicken of being a mercenary and the only “proof” they managed to get was Maral’s “confession”.
Later, in an ECHR report, Maral admitted that his confession had been extracted under torture and that none of it was true.
"Vicken's case is therefore very particular among the cases of other Armenian prisoners of war, and more complex for the defense lawyers. Maral was able to be released thanks to the intervention of the Lebanese state, but unfortunately, because of his "confessions", Vicken was sentenced to 20 years in prison " deplores his wife.
Are you able to communicate with him at present?
“ Thanks to the Red Cross, every month I receive a letter and I can speak to him once on the phone. During the phone calls, Vicken tries to explain to me in Arabic the truth about his detention conditions, but his guards prevent him from doing so and force him to speak in Armenian for control reasons. However, I do not speak Armenian. I know that he is very weak, that the detention conditions are very harsh.
The only food he is served is rice; he has lost more than 15 kilos and suffers from memory problems. I see his condition gradually deteriorating due to malnutrition and the inhumane treatment he has suffered. He is denied any care.
I no longer recognize my husband, his physical and psychological state has deteriorated so much; I was unable to tell him about his mother's recent death. How could I have done so? He already lost his father and one of his brothers last year.
As for me, I suffer from many health problems: depression, chronic pain, respiratory problems, complications related to the after-effects of COVID. I cannot afford my health care and my condition simply does not allow me to work. My mother, who is blind, is my dependent, and we live as a threesome with my daughter in a small apartment.
Since Linda has been trying to raise the issue of her husband Vicken Euljeckjian’s detention, she has become the target of insults, mockery, and speculation online. For example, there was once an article claiming that Vicken had died in prison. On social media, Azerbaijani users keep calling out Linda, mocking her, addressing obscenities, or lying about Vicken’s condition… In the case of Vicken and her family, anti-Armenian hatred is expressed without limits.
How are your children experiencing this ordeal?
"My daughter Christina left university and now works to support the family. Serge lives with his fiancée. He works as a jeweler in a company.
Our children are living in deep unhappiness and are traumatized by the videos of torture suffered by their father; my daughter is being followed by a psychologist, but my son refuses any psychological help. He wants to appear strong and assume the role of the man of the family; he refuses to marry as long as his father languishes in Azerbaijani jails.
The entire family has promised Vicken to fight until his last breath for his release. We love, respect and admire him deeply.
I have appealed for help several times on social media; my daughter has started a fundraising campaign to help us pay for lawyers, but we have received no help.
Our only hope lies with Armenian lawyers who are doing their utmost.
My husband is our hero. His children miss him so much. I miss him every day."
The LIBERTAS collective