Under Pressure from Baku, Paris City Hall Cancelled the Opening of the Exhibition on Armenian Hostages – but It Went Ahead Anyway
The following is an English translation of an article originally published in French by Nouvelles d’Arménie (Armenews) on September 2, 2026.
Two three-sided display panels bearing black-and-white photographs of the 19 hostages held in Baku have been installed on the square in front of Paris City Hall. In this way, the City of Paris has demonstrated its support for Armenian political prisoners held in Azerbaijan — young conscripts from the 44-Day War of 2020 as well as former leaders of Artsakh.
An event had long been scheduled for Wednesday, September 2, to mark the opening of the short exhibition, which will remain on display through Saturday, September 5. However, Paris City Hall cancelled the event the previous evening following very serious threats concerning the safety of French citizens in Azerbaijan.
Nevertheless, nearly 300 people gathered in front of City Hall at 10 a.m. on September 2.
Alongside the co-presidents of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), those present included Hovhannes Guevorkian, Representative of Artsakh in France; Yonathan Arfi, President of CRIF; Philippe Meyer, Vice-President of CRIF; Marcel Kabanda, representing survivors of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda; as well as a number of elected officials, including Xavier Bertrand, President of the Hauts-de-France Regional Council; MPs Constance Le Grip and Emmanuel Mandon; and municipal officials including Josiane Gaude, Stéphane Exposito and Fabienne Liadzé.
René Rouquet was also among those who attended.
Without a sound system, the speakers addressed the gathering using a megaphone. Ara Toranian, Co-President of the CCAF, spoke first.
Ara Toranian, Co-President of the CCAF
“Dear friends,
First of all, allow me to thank the Paris Council, which unanimously adopted a resolution on December 19 calling for respect for the right of the people of Artsakh to return to their ancestral homeland and live there freely and safely, as well as for the release of all Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan.
Our gratitude also goes to the Mayor of Paris and to Deputy Mayor for International Relations Audrey Pulvar, who worked to ensure that this resolution would not remain merely words on paper, but would take concrete form today in this exhibition on the square in front of City Hall, displaying portraits of those who for more than three years have been victims of what can only be described as a travesty of justice.
A travesty of justice? How else can we describe these trials in Baku against the leaders of the Republic of Artsakh, conducted by the very regime that carried out ethnic cleansing against it, preceded by a nine-month blockade?
An ultra-nationalist, dictatorial, racist and belligerent regime that observes no separation of powers whatsoever, and whose president publicly boasted of having ‘driven the Armenians out like dogs,’ after previously allowing himself to be filmed trampling on the Artsakh flag.
Could anything else have been expected from such a regime but the maximum sentences, including life imprisonment, imposed on representatives of a people it despises — a people that for more than 30 years had dared to resist its rule and, in doing so, defended nothing more than its right to exist?
The Armenians of Artsakh never had any illusions about the intentions of the Azerbaijani authorities toward them. The criminal outcome of September 19, 2023 tragically confirmed those fears and retrospectively demonstrated why they had resisted for 30 years for the survival of their republic — self-proclaimed, certainly, but democratic.
Moreover, Baku’s criminal actions, supported and encouraged by Ankara, did not emerge from nowhere. They form part of a long sequence of crimes aimed for more than a century at completely eliminating the millennia-old Armenian presence from its ancestral lands.
This has been pursued in the name of a pan-Turkic ideology that regards Armenians as a physical, cultural and religious obstacle to the territorial continuity and homogeneity of the Turkic world, stretching ‘from the Adriatic to the Great Wall of China,’ as former Turkish President Süleyman Demirel put it in the early 1990s.
That phrase was used at the very time when the first modern anti-Armenian pogroms were being perpetrated on Azerbaijani territory: Sumgait in February 1988, Kirovabad in November of the same year, Baku in January 1990, and the massacre in Maragha in April 1992.
These atrocities followed in the spirit of the massacres of 1894–1896 ordered by Sultan Abdul Hamid and the genocide of 1915, which resulted in the killing of 1.5 million Armenians and hundreds of thousands of Assyrians, Chaldeans and Pontic Greeks.
The impunity surrounding these crimes against humanity has, to this day, reinforced pan-Turkic arrogance and encouraged the pursuit of a final solution against Artsakh rather than acceptance of the framework of international legality proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States.
That group, dissolved last year, proposed a peace based on three principles: non-use of force or threat of force, the right to self-determination, and respect for territorial integrity.
This peaceful proposal was rejected by the Ankara-Baku axis, which in September 2020 instead chose the traditional pan-Turkic response to minority demands: violence.
A military offensive was launched under particularly favorable circumstances: three million Armenians facing 100 million Turks and Azerbaijanis; Armenia politically isolated and experiencing tensions with Moscow following the Velvet Revolution; and much of the Western political establishment displaying self-interested — and at times financially motivated — indifference, while public attention was focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
It is within this deeply troubling context that we must understand the situation of the 19 Armenian prisoners held in Baku for three years, and in some cases five. It forms part of what historian Vincent Duclert has described as a ‘long genocide’ against a people and a country being systematically destroyed, piece by piece, for more than a century.
There is, of course, a profound human tragedy in the situation of these prisoners: people persecuted and deprived of their liberty, subjected to absolute arbitrariness, cut off from their families and from the outside world, and, judging from what is known about Azerbaijani prison practices, subjected to multiple forms of abuse.
Otherwise, why refuse transparency? Why refuse visits? These prisoners have no rights and no protection of any kind. No NGO has been able to meet them for a year, not even Azerbaijani representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
But their imprisonment also has a political dimension that unquestionably places them in the category of hostages. These men represent one of the bullets in the gun Baku keeps pointed at the Armenian authorities in order to extract ever more concessions.
Their detention constitutes a permanent means of pressure and an instrument of blackmail, just as the cases of Martin Ryan and Anass Derraz — arbitrarily imprisoned in Baku because they are citizens of a country considered too supportive of Armenia — are used against the French government.
This is how Mr. Ilham Aliyev operates. He also sought to punish Paris for its positions in support of Artsakh by attempting to contaminate the Olympic Games with a disinformation campaign, as documented by Viginum, France’s agency for combating foreign digital interference.
A specialist in double standards, the Azerbaijani dictatorship now claims to be building peace with the Armenians while attempting to institutionalize a fait accompli achieved through force and dictate its terms to them. But what do we call a peace that prevents a people from living on its own land, deprives them of all their property and denies them all their rights? What kind of peace can be signed when one side takes the leaders of the other hostage?
After the disappearance of Artsakh, would it be acceptable to allow its leaders to disappear as well and resign ourselves to their invisibility? Would that not turn international indifference into their second prison?
In any case, thank you to the City of Paris for opening another breach today in this wall of complicit silence. And thanks to its representatives, even though, in the context of these threats, they are not here with us to hear it, for allowing us to remind the world that nowhere can the logic of hostage-taking be reconciled with the spirit of peace — a peace that we, too, sincerely desire.”
Mourad Papazian, Co-President of the CCAF
“We are gathered here today to make a demand that allows for no ambiguity, bargaining or delay: the immediate and unconditional release of the nineteen Armenians detained in Azerbaijan.
Nineteen men. Nineteen lives. Nineteen families trapped in an unbearable wait.
Among them are Ruben Vardanyan, former Artsakh presidents Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan and Arkadi Ghukasyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, Davit Babayan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, Davit Manukyan, as well as other prisoners, both military personnel and civilians.
They all have names. They all have faces. They all have families. None of them should be reduced to a diplomatic file, an instrument of pressure or a bargaining chip. We are here to honor them.
They served their people, defended its dignity and embodied its aspiration to live freely on its own land. Today they are imprisoned because they embodied Artsakh.
They are freedom fighters. To us, they are heroes. Their imprisonment does not diminish them: it reveals their courage and indicts those who claim to build peace while imprisoning freedom.
Freedom!
Freedom for those who fought. Freedom for those who governed. Freedom for those who simply refused to abandon their people. Freedom for all, without distinction, selection or condition.
Three years ago, in September 2023, Azerbaijan launched its offensive against Artsakh. Within days, 120,000 Armenians were forced to leave their ancestral homeland. Entire families fled in fear, leaving behind their homes, schools, churches, cemeteries, memories and a millennia-old Armenian presence.
This tragedy did not emerge in a single day. It had been prepared by nine months of blockade. For nine months, the Lachin Corridor was obstructed and then closed. For nine months, the population of Artsakh was deprived of food, medicine, energy and freedom of movement. For nine months, 120,000 women, men, children and elderly people endured fear, shortages and hunger.
The International Court of Justice had ordered that the movement of people, vehicles and goods in both directions be guaranteed. That order was not respected. Warnings multiplied. Condemnations followed. Yet the blockade continued. Then came the offensive of September 19, 2023. Then the exodus.
Then came the arrests.
We must call things by their name: this was ethnic cleansing. The forced, mass and organized displacement of a civilian population is among the acts that international law may qualify as a crime against humanity. We demand that this characterization be fully examined by the competent courts and that all responsibility be established.
It was in this context that several leaders of Artsakh were detained and transferred to Baku. Some of the detainees had been captured after the 2020 war. Others were detained at the very moment their people were being driven from their land.
The trials took place before a military court, amid a lack of transparency criticized by human rights defenders, and without the essential guarantees of independent and fair justice.
The European Parliament denounced their unjust detention and sham trials. Amnesty International described Ruben Vardanyan’s trial as a travesty of justice. Sentences of fifteen years, twenty years and even life imprisonment were imposed. The European Parliament called for their immediate and unconditional release, sanctions against those responsible for violations, and an international investigation into forced displacement, persecution and ethnic cleansing.
But so far international condemnations have rarely gone beyond words. Resolutions have been adopted. Statements have been issued. Concerns have been expressed. Meanwhile, the prison doors have remained closed.
The diplomacy of words has shown its limits. The time has come for the diplomacy of action.
Freedom!
To those who tell us that this issue should be resolved after peace is achieved, we answer clearly: it is the other way around. The release of the Armenian prisoners is a condition for peace.
There can be no credible peace while men remain imprisoned because they represented, defended or served Artsakh. There can be no trust when captives are used as instruments of pressure. There can be no lasting peace if victims are required to remain silent so as not to disturb negotiations.
Peace is not forgetting. Peace is not impunity. Peace is not abandonment. Peace requires justice, dignity and freedom.
We address President Ilham Aliyev: release the Armenian prisoners. Release them without bargaining, without compensation and without conditions. Their release would not be a favor. It would not be a concession. It would be the application of law and the first verifiable act demonstrating a genuine will for peace.
We address the European Union. It can no longer separate its interests from its values. No energy agreement, strategic partnership or commercial consideration should lead Europe to turn a blind eye.
Any progress in relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan must be explicitly conditional on the release of all Armenian prisoners and all political prisoners.
Europe cannot speak of freedom within its borders and forget it when negotiating for gas beyond them. Freedom is not something to be negotiated; it is something to be defended.
We address France. France has a particular voice, a particular responsibility and a particular history with the Armenian people. Its Parliament has called for the immediate release of Artsakh’s political leaders and guarantees for the right of Armenian populations to return to their land. French diplomacy has called for the release of all those arbitrarily detained in Azerbaijan.
These positions must now become a strategy for action.
We call on France to take the initiative in forming a European coalition for the release of the prisoners; to raise this issue at the highest level in Brussels, at the Council of Europe and at the United Nations; to support targeted sanctions if Baku persists; to demand regular and independent humanitarian access; and to make the prisoners’ release a political condition for any normalization with Azerbaijan.
We also call on France to continue defending the right of return of the Armenians of Artsakh: a voluntary, dignified, sustainable and secure return under international guarantees. This right does not disappear because a people has been driven out. It does not fade with time. It cannot be sacrificed on the altar of a false peace.
We wish to thank and salute the City of Paris. Paris remained steadfast when so many others looked away. Paris supported Artsakh during the blockade. Paris participated in delivering humanitarian aid. Paris granted honorary citizenship to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Paris denounced ethnic cleansing, called for the immediate release of the prisoners, and reaffirmed the right of the Armenians of Artsakh to return freely and safely to their land.
To the City of Paris, its Council and all the elected officials who, regardless of their political affiliations, have supported this cause, we say thank you.
In the city of human rights, this support is more than a symbol. It is an act of fidelity. It is an honor. And it is a message to the world: do not abandon Artsakh, do not abandon its prisoners, do not abandon the law.
Finally, we address the Armenian authorities. The fate of the prisoners cannot be absent from the peace process. It must be placed at the center of every discussion with Baku. No agreement can claim to bring the conflict to an end if it abandons those who remain captive and erases the right of return of those who were driven from their homes.
Until their release, we demand independent humanitarian access and respect for their health, their right to a defense, and their ties with their families.
The world must know where they are, what condition they are in and how they are being treated.
This cause is neither partisan nor communal. It is universal. It concerns everyone who refuses to accept that force can silence law, that energy can buy silence, and that peace can be used as a pretext for forgetting.
Freedom!
To the families, we say: your wait is our wait. Your pain is our pain. Your struggle is our struggle.
To the hostages imprisoned in Baku, we say: you are not forgotten. We speak your names. We carry your faces. We will continue mobilizing our institutions, our elected officials and our consciences until the day you return.
The time for declarations without consequences is over. The time for responsibility has come. France must assume its responsibility. Europe must assume its responsibility. International institutions must assume their responsibility. The Armenian authorities must assume their responsibility. And every one of us must play our part in this struggle.
The release of the prisoners is a humanitarian emergency, a political imperative and an absolute priority.
Free the Armenian hostages. Free them all. Free them now.
Long live freedom. Long live Armenia. Long live France.”
Xavier Bertrand then addressed the gathering in a speech described as both firm and emotional. The President of the Hauts-de-France Regional Council stressed that the veil of oblivion must not descend over the 19 Armenian prisoners, nor should the veil of shame descend over a country that maintains ties of friendship with Armenia.
Constance Le Grip, Member of the French National Assembly for Hauts-de-Seine, also expressed her support and solidarity, calling for the release of the hostages held in difficult conditions.
Emmanuel Mandon, Member of the National Assembly for the Loire department, likewise expressed his solidarity, saying that it was impossible to remain indifferent to the situation. Having visited Artsakh many times, he recalled that it had been close to democratic standards and noted that many people had devoted their time and energy to it.
Stéphane Exposito, Deputy Mayor of Alfortville, said that neither shame nor oblivion had any place there, adding that the city would never abandon those who had become its friends.
Photo report by Lydia Kasparian
