Today, Vagif Khachatryan marks his 70th birthday behind bars in Azerbaijan, where he remains unlawfully imprisoned after being abducted while trying to reach Armenia for emergency medical care during Azerbaijan’s illegal blockade of Artsakh. Because Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor, imposed in December 2022, had cut Artsakh off from Armenia and deprived its 120,000 residents of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid, the International Red Cross organized an evacuation for Vagif Khachatryan to undergo urgent heart surgery in Armenia. On July 29, 2023, Azerbaijani forces captured Vagif at the Hakari Bridge, where they stopped the convoy and took him to Baku, ignoring protests from Red Cross personnel. In Baku, prosecutors accused him of “genocide,” “forced displacement,” and “destruction of property” allegedly committed in the village of Meshali (Khojaly district) on December 22, 1991. Armenian and international observers have rejected these charges as fabricated. The court sentenced him to 15 years in prison, with the first five to be served in jail and the rest in a high-security colony. Earlier today, his daughter, Vera Khachatryan, shared a heartfelt message for her father’s birthday: “Sometimes it feels like every word is unnecessary, sometimes it seems meaningless to write or share emotions online. But there are days when silence becomes impossible, when words are the only way to release suffocating feelings. Today is my father’s 70th birthday, and we are going mad with helplessness that we cannot simply call and say, ‘Papa, I love you, happy birthday.’ Forgive us, our kind, strong father, for our helplessness. We embrace you through the air as tightly as our hearts allow. You will feel our warmth, the strength that must help you endure all hardships. No border can separate us. You will come home, we believe it. You promised.” Vagif Khachatryan remains unlawfully detained in Azerbaijan. His family and human rights advocates continue to call for his immediate release, describing his imprisonment as a violation of international humanitarian law and a symbol of the ongoing persecution of Artsakh’s civilian population.

ACAT-France (*) has launched a campaign, echoing LIBERTAS's advocacy, to ensure justice for the Armenian victims of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, with the safe return of refugees, a fair trial for the 23 Armenians detained, opening their trials to international observers, and protection of heritage: Please participate in this campaign en masse. To do so, once you are on the campaign page: click on the “ Send an email ” button and your email inbox will open with a letter of request ready to be sent to Ilham Aliyev via the Azerbaijani ambassador to France, at the following address send this email (*) Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture is an ecumenical Christian NGO that defends human rights and considers torture to be the absolute negation of the dignity inherent in every person. ACAT-France has more than 39,000 members (members and donors), 27 regional teams, and 350 local groups.

1/2 Meeting in Armenia - end of April 2025 (INTRA / LIBERTAS) Following on from its campaign launched at the end of 2024 to provide psychological support to former Armenian prisoners, their families, and the families of those still in captivity, LIBERTAS is stepping up its efforts on the ground .   At the end of April 2025, Hilda Tchoboian , coordinator of the collective, carried out a mission to supervise the project unfolding in Armenia : First, working sessions on the rolling out of psychotherapeutic care were held in collaboration with Khachatur Gasparyan, director of the Seda Ghazarian Foundation for Mental Health (INTRA) These sessions laid the foundations for structured and sustainable support for former state hostages and their family, implemented by INTRA, Seda Ghazarian Mental Health Center in Yerevan. This program is realized thanks to a technical collaboration between INTRA, also supported by ICRC Delegation in Armenia, and the ICLC (International and Comparative Law Center) in Armenia. NB:  INTRA experts also cooperate  with "Santé Arménie", and the Vinatier Psychiatric hospital in Lyon This mission also marked the official launch of the field survey phase , which aims to assess the psychological and social assistance needs of 195 former Armenian prisonners / hostages , who have been released in stages since 2021 INTRA has set up 3 multidisciplinary duos (psychologists and social workers) to cover the cities of Gyumri, Vanadzor and Yerevan in order to conduct face-to-face assessment interviews, both individually and with families. Khachatur Gasparyan and Hilda Tchoboian  during a working session on April 18, 2025, discussing the ongoing LIBERTAS program providing psychological care   to   released Armenian hostages  and their families. Alongside this work, Hilda Tchoboian gathered testimonies from two key figures involved in the project: Siranush Sahakyan, director of the International and Comparative Law Center, and Khachatur Gasparyan, director of the INTRA Center: 2/2 Video conference meeting – June 18, 2025 (INTRA / LIBERTAS) The assessment phase is progressing as planned : 195 released prisoners were targeted to be informed by telephone about the psychotherapy project and to be invited to participate in the psychological needs assessment survey As of June 18, 2025, an attempt to contact 31 former prisoners of war from a first group was carried out: 17 have been contacted and 7 of them have agreed to an initial meeting with one of the three INTRA teams, each consisting of a psychologist and a social worker, depending on where the prisoners live. The assessment can begin after this initial meeting 14 could not be reached, and attempts to contact them will continue. The psychologist and social worker duo from the INTRA center participating in the conference INTRA team participating in the conference with, on the right, Khachatur Gasparyan, its director Hilda Tchoboian, LIBERTAS coordinator

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