Nagorno-Karabakh former foreign minister David Babayan, who is in Azerbaijani captivity, has appealed to all human rights activists and people of goodwill. Babayan's respective audio message was transmitted to Armenian News-NEWS.am through his family, and we present below the English translation of his message.

"Dear compatriots, Armenians around the world, people of goodwill around the world, human rights activists, human rights defenders, journalists:

I am forced to appeal to you, because I simply have no other alternative. You know that we have been here [in Azerbaijani capital Baku prisons] for three years, legal proceedings are underway and, of course, with major violations. But the latest of those violations have been joined by another one: my letter of appeals to the [Azerbaijani] court of appeals here have disappeared, so that this case can also be reviewed in the court of appeals, and we want to appeal to an international court.

My lawyer informed me about it on May 7, saying that it is the last day to submit petitions. Of course, it was a surprise, because the last day was supposed to be February 25, and on February 23, I sent two petitions from the isolation ward, and one letter through the head of the isolation ward, with a request to send this. And all of that has disappeared, it's gone! I had to write another letter, but I don't know the answer. So, it's not ruled out that they will try to prevent me from submitting my petitions to the court of appeals.

In addition, during the transfer from the isolation cell to the prison on April 21, my last speech in the court of first instance, on December 19, 2025, was also confiscated. This is also nothing more than a step to destroy all critical speeches. Therefore, I ask you all to accept this as information, to the international court—as a proceeding, and to the international community—for your information, because we really want to appeal to the international court.

Therefore, I call on all Armenians and people of good will to help us in this matter. I am doing this for the sake of justice, democracy, the protection of human rights, for the sake of true peace, and I believe this is the only way in this direction. Therefore, I would also ask you to demand, ask, that our last speeches be provided to you also on video, if they have not already been destroyed.

And now I would like to briefly present the judicial process. Who knows what will happen to me tomorrow, so that you are aware of what is happening in general. This trial that is underway [in Baku] is, of course, fabricated, all norms of humanity, justice, fairness, international law, their own legislation are being grossly violated. I call on our patriotic Armenians to unite and defend our rights, because we will petition to an international court. All their [i.e. Azerbaijan’s] arguments are fabricated, they are empty, they are very weak. This trial is not a trial, this is an ethno-political vendetta, an ethno-political lynching directed at the past, present, and future of our [i.e. Armenian] people.

There were so many of these abuses, violations, that even some lawyers have noted about it, stating that the time will come [when] they will be ashamed of all these violations. I would also say that it will be painful, because there are some ideas, some unwritten laws, written laws, related to faith, the violation of which, including especially knowingly, voluntarily and arrogantly, is never forgiven to anyone. I also quoted a saying from their Quran, where it says that God does not love arrogant and self-righteous, self-satisfied people, and this is very important. I think that had its effect.

There are so many of these violations [in the aforesaid trial] that sometimes it even reaches tragicomedy. For example, the first thing that catches the eye is that they wrote in the indictment that during my search, two metal objects were found, white and yellow; they are my gold necklace with a cross and a silver tzbekh; both are handmade. Now they note it as some kind of metal objects of white and yellow.

Then explanations of the so-called ‘witnesses’ are very interesting. A witness who first ‘recognized’ me told me, ‘You are Vitali Balasanyan, I remember you well, you used to beat me, you used to torture [me].’ Then everyone said that he was another person, but he did not rest. My defense attorney said that he was not him, he disrespected the defense attorney, considered him Armenian, then he saw that the situation had become complicated, he started to pretend.

The other one who ‘recognized’ me was a man who was saying that I had tortured him in the winter of 1994 and was saying, ‘You haven’t changed at all, you’re the same two meters tall, with a golden beard, mustache and hair; you haven’t changed in any way.’ He also pointing to us, was saying, ‘They beat us brutally in [19]93 and [19]92, we were hanging our heads down,’ we were keeping them in that position for seven days, we were beating them with iron rods, some kind of sticks.’

I say, ‘Even bats, which have evolved for millions of years, can't stay hanging for seven days in a row, how did you stay hanging [for seven days in a row]?’ Do you understand, in a normal court, at least three answers should be given to them: either these people should apologize, or they should be medically examined, maybe they have some problems, or they should be considered slander and sued.

Nothing happened. On the contrary, they were coming to all the trials, many, many other sessions, and they were being shown in the foreground, on their television.

It was also interesting that during the investigation, they brought and showed a picture of Davit Galstyan, an MP of the NKR [(Nagorno-Karabakh Republic] National Assembly, said that he was a famous mafioso, he was selling weapons. I said this person had nothing to do with it, then it turned out that this was another Davit Galstyan, the person called ‘Patron Davo.’ But the problem is that 73 people have already testified against that MP and allegedly saw him personally. When I told [them], they got confused, went. About two hours later they came [back], said that, ‘We have changed, you will say that you saved Davit Galstyan’s life.’

When they were accusing us of illegal economic activities, they were saying that unrecognized states are illegal entities, and having economic relations with them is a crime in itself. But what happened, during the trial, that simultaneous translation device was made in Taiwan. That is, they are trying ‘separatists’ using the equipment of a ‘separatist’ country, but they say that it is impossible to maintain relations with these states. This is despite the fact that their leadership visited China twice in 2025 alone and announced there that it recognizes Taiwan as part of China.

I’m telling this based on facts, this is the situation. I think there is state, geopolitical hatred, I have also pointed this out in my speeches.

Ordinary people have nothing to do with it, people are normal everywhere, and we have really seen a lot of people here [in Azerbaijan], also very normal people who have treated us well. In general, there is no bad nation, for that I am grateful to all normal people. Therefore, we must tell the truth as it is. We want that there be justice; that is why we are presenting all this to the international community also.

Taking [this] opportunity, I would like to also thank all our friends who have been by our side during these years, both in the homeland and in the [Armenian] diaspora, and our friends in various countries around the world, who even have serious problems with each other. Europe, America are especially active, and that is very good.

Be strong! At the moment everything is still normal at us, in prison, etc. Thank you very much, because this struggle is not only for us, it is for justice, human rights, democracy.”

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1035243