Euljekian, 45, is a native of Lebanon who had moved to Nagorno-Karabakh and worked there as a taxi driver years before the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. He and a Lebanese-Armenian friend, Maral Najarian, were detained by Azerbaijani forces outside the Karabakh town of Shushi (Shusha) on November 10, 2020 hours after a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the six-week war. They both were taken to Baku to face criminal charges denied by them.
Euljekian was accused of being a terrorist and mercenary and illegally entering Azerbaijan. Najarian risked similar accusations before being released and repatriated in March 2021.
Euljekian, who has dual Armenian and Lebanese citizenships, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2021 after a short trial condemned by Armenia’s government and human rights groups as a travesty of justice. His health has since been a cause for serious concern for his family and friends.
Euljekian informed his Lebanese wife, Linda Iman, about his hunger strike when they last spoke by phone about a month ago.
“He only said, ‘Linda, it’s me, Viken, I stopped eating 15 days ago,’” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Iman said she has not heard from him since then and does not even know whether he is continuing the hunger strike. She said Azerbaijani prison authorities told the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday that her husband suffers from back pain but is otherwise in good shape.
“But I’m concerned because I can’t believe anyone until I speak with by husband,” she said. “I’m not saying that the ICRC is lying or anything. I just want to speak with my husband to know if he is OK because I feel so bad.”
“Viken is an innocent man,” added Iman. “He has a family and must be freed.”
ICRC representatives were last allowed to visit Euljekian and the other Armenian prisoners in March. Azerbaijan’s government announced around that time plans to close the Geneva-based organization’s office in Baku.
“Our dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities is ongoing,” said Zara Amatuni, the ICRC spokeswoman in Yerevan. “We will try to get an answer on this issue soon.”
The prisoners include eight former political and military leaders of Karabakh, who went on trial in January along with eight other Karabakh Armenians also captured during Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military offensive.
The Armenian government criticized the “mock trials” in February after weeks of effective silence condemned by its domestic critics. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed earlier that explicit condemnation of the trials would only harm the defendants.
Pashinian’s detractors insisted that he is simply afraid of angering Baku. Some of them claim that he does not the former Karabakh leaders, notably Armenian-born billionaire and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, to be freed.
Vardanyan went on hunger strike in February in protest against the trials regarded by him as a “farce.” He refused food for almost a month.
Yerevan does not seem to have pushed for the release of the prisoners in its talks with Baku on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.