“Ruben Vardanyan acted as a peacekeeper in the conflict in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (another name for Artsakh). During the hostilities there in 2020, he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to help resolve the military conflict. He also renounced his Russian citizenship in order to go to the field and head the government in Nagorno-Karabakh. Why did he do all of this? In his view, this was the only way to draw the world’s attention to the problem (there was nothing about it on the international agenda). He solved the issues of providing the residents of blockaded Artsakh with food, medical care and electricity.

And now there is the trial going on. I will share my thoughts.

The case of a man who did not participate in the hostilities in Karabakh is being heard in the Baku military court. This is strange. At the second court session Ruben was appointed a state lawyer. According to his family, they are trying to force him to change his own lawyer for a state lawyer.

Taking into account the events of the interstate conflict, the forcible imposition of a public defender from one of the parties on the accused looks ambiguous.

In itself, the state institution of the public advocacy is a strong humanistic initiative. But it is bad when such a mechanism is used to legalize the judicial process. A person must have a choice: a state lawyer or a non-state lawyer. “A person must have a choice: a state lawyer or a non-state lawyer. And this is especially important, as I think, when it comes to courts, which, both in terms of their content and the attention of the world community attached to it, have an international status”.