The ad, placed by Amsterdam & Partners LLP, explains that Karapetyan was jailed for supporting the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, and urges the Armenian government to end what it describes as a campaign of persecution against the Church.

“The Church has fulfilled this exclusive mission by vigorously defending the rights of Armenians forced out of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the preservation of their religious and cultural heritage. This has put the AAHC on a collision course with the Armenian Government, which has been widely criticised at home and abroad for its role in failing to defend Nagorno-Karabakh”, explained the ad.

“In response, the Armenian Government has launched a serious of online attacks on His Holiness Karekin II and ridden roughshod over canon law by seeking to overthrow and replace the Catholicos. Such interference in the internal affairs of a religious organization breaches both domestic and international law. Meanwhile, bishops and parishioners have also been arrested, as part of the Government’s campaign to harass and subdue the Church”.

Read more at https://freekarapetyan.com/

The closed-door hearings, conducted without independent media or international observers, were described as “a farce” by Sahakyan, who expects predetermined guilty verdicts by year’s end. She emphasised that these unlawful rulings must be challenged through international judicial mechanisms to ensure they are declared illegitimate. “Of course, we can already predict the verdicts – they will be guilty verdicts with the harshest possible sentences, which are essentially the result of a political order”, she said. “The key question is how to ensure these violations are documented and subsequently receive an adequate international response — including through international judicial decisions. The goal is to eliminate these unlawful verdicts from the legal system”.

Meanwhile, the trial of former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan is nearing its end. After dismissing his lawyer in protest against the sham proceedings, Vardanyan remains without proper legal defence or international access. The International Committee of the Red Cross — once the only channel to the captives — has been expelled from Baku.

CSI reported being denied access to imprisoned clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and highlighted a widening campaign of arrests targeting clergy, lawyers, family members and journalists. The delegation also noted increasing pressure on independent media and the sidelining of the national church at official events.

CSI reiterated its long-standing support for the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and urged the Armenian government to release detained clergy, respect the Church’s constitutional autonomy, and end attacks on press freedom. The organisation is calling on international partners, including faith leaders and human rights groups, to speak out and attend court hearings related to these cases.

Read the complete press release of CSI here: https://www.csi-int.org/news/csi-raises-alarm-over-deteriorating-religious-freedom-human-rights-in-armenia/

Aliyev’s statements form part of a long-running campaign of historical falsification and territorial revisionism aimed at erasing Armenia’s millennia-old heritage, an attempt to justify its aggression and expand its genocidal narrative beyond Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). “Unfortunately, our rich history has long been distorted by Armenia and the Armenian diaspora”, said Aliyev.

The documents reveal that Baku has directly financed and supervised international conferences, media projects, and pseudo-academic programmes designed to normalise the concept of “Western Azerbaijan”, falsely presenting it as a humanitarian initiative.

“Leaked documents from the Azerbaijani Government, obtained by OC Media, show that the discourse is closely coordinated and supported by the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, despite being fronted by the Western Azerbaijan Community (WAC)”.

Read the investigation by Rasmus Canbäck in OC Media here: https://oc-media.org/exclusive-azerbaijans-western-azerbaijan-campaign-exposed-in-leaked-documents/

In recent months, tensions between the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), its independent national church, have escalated sharply. Authorities arrested top clergy accused of taking part in a plot to overthrow Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government earlier this year.

But critics see the breakfast—said to be organized by a group called the Individual Believers Club—as an attempt to give religious legitimacy to a government that is persecuting the church as part of a broader effort to weaken challenges to its authority”.

Read the article by Christianity Today here: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/11/armenia-prayer-breakfast-armenian-apostalic-church/

The writings, documented by the Geghard Scientific Analytical Foundation and ethnic Talysh Azerbaijani journalist Rahim Shaliyev, include phrases such as “We chased away the dogs”.

This monument, completed in 1967 in Stepanakert and long regarded as a symbol of Artsakh’s Armenian identity, has faced repeated attacks since Azerbaijan’s 2023 occupation.