“Ruben Vardanyan is my friend, and I declare that he is a decent man who has always tried to look at the public from a more inclusive perspective than his personal gain. That is why he is included in the public platform, I mean our contemporary civic issues, to make life better for the people of his community. He is a person to whom we should express gratitude, not shut him down somewhere in Baku. This is an unjust arrest against an individual and the government of Azerbaijan would do well to release him immediately. I will continue to speak out and defend this demand. This is unfair, it should not be, and it is not the way human beings should communicate with each other. It is a concentration of mistreatment of each other, and as a result of this mistreatment of each other, it snowballs and becomes a terrible problem, up to and including mass atrocities and even genocide. We do not take enough time to be kind to one another, to be tolerant and more just. This is exactly the poisonous fruit of the tree of injustice that we have nurtured for generations.

As a South African freedom fighter seems to have said years ago, “Let my people go!” Right? So, release Ruben! Let him go, let him go home, let him go to his family! He does not hurt anyone! He is trying to contribute to the prosperity of mankind, and to the protection of those people who have been threatened. He is such a person that we should be grateful to, not imprison him”.