At Harvard Law Talk, Van Krikorian Says International Laws Work Only If Enforced

Meanwhile, he noted that while placed under Soviet Azerbaijani control, Nakhichevan had its remaining Armenian population eliminated in various ways thanks in part to the relations among Moscow, Ankara and Baku, and ancient Armenian monuments and structures were destroyed. The end part of this process has been documented with modern technology.

In 2021, Armenia brought a case before the International Court of Justice, citing multiple international treaties, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, of which Azerbaijan was a member until it was expelled in 2024, passed various resolutions condemning what happened in Karabakh. Yet, Krikorian concluded, the international treaties and mechanisms that exist did not work. He said, “That’s why there is this really overwhelming feeling that the system has failed…And so it is time for a change.”

The Baku Show Trials

Armenians were captured by Azerbaijan during the 44-day war of 2020 and in November of that year a trilateral statement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia called for the release of both sides’ prisoners. Armenia released all of its prisoners but Azerbaijan did not, Krikorian related. In 2023, when Azerbaijan took over the remaining territory of Karabakh and when the Armenian population fled, Azerbaijan took additional prisoners.

Officially, 19 Armenians are still kept prisoner in Baku, but these numbers may be much higher. Krikorian said that these 19 were charged with terrorism and genocide and placed on trial. One of the most prominent defendants is Ruben Vardanyan, who was a student in university in Moscow during the period he was accused of terrorism and genocide. Another defendant, Vagif Khachatryan, during his trial said that he apologized because he was not even in Karabakh in that period of time, but the Azerbaijani translator changed this to “I apologize for what I have done in the death of these Azeris.” Levon Mnatsakanyan, former defense minister of the Artsakh Republic and later chief of police, whom Krikorian knew from the 1990s, was tried and convicted, Krikorian said, on fake evidence though in fact he imposed strict discipline on the Artsakh soldiers to protect civilians and respect the rules of war when he commanded them.

These show trials, Krikorian said, have to be viewed in the context of the state-controlled legal system. In fact, he said that “there was probably more of a chance to get a fair trial during the Stalinist era than there is in Azerbaijan today, to be very blunt. Not just lawyers, not just the press, the bar association and the judges — everything is state controlled.”

He noted that a video after the 2020 war from a Turkish source of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey shows the latter’s wife, Emine Erdogan, suggesting that the prisoners of war be kept and only slowly released, in order to get more during negotiations. In fact, that is what Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has done, he said. He also announced last year that Azerbaijan would no longer participate in the European Court of Human Rights or respect its decisions, knowing that eventually the human rights cases of the Armenian prisoners would make their way there.

In the only case of release of some of the Armenian prisoners, recently four were exchanged for two ISIS mercenaries recruited in Syria, who were guilty of severe mutilations and beheadings of Armenians. Krikorian said they were released to Syria to allow Aliyev to avoid having his fingerprints on their actions.

Krikorian made two points concerning denial of genocide and ethnic cleansing at the conclusion of his talk. He mentioned that thanks to the people who fawn over Azerbaijan even today, “One of the main lessons that we’ve learned from denial is that there are people in this world who will betray their fundamental principles for money or their own interests. And they will do it even with their religious fervor.”

Finally, he concluded: “These trials reflect what I started with – that the denial of genocide going on in Azerbaijan today and assisted thoroughly by Turkey and a lot of other bad actors, is happening because they’re trying to rewrite history in a much faster way than Turkey and other countries do.”

In a brief question-and-answer session, Krikorian explained that Azerbaijan is able to still exert influence internationally despite its human rights violations and being a dictatorship because of what is called “caviar diplomacy.” The strategy was to lure international companies to invest in Azerbaijan and then have these companies lobby their respective governments. Direct bribery was sometimes used, such as in the case of a Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, who was indicted for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes and in return blocking legislation to which Azerbaijan objected. (Pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025, Cuellar continues to serve in Congress.)

Despite having many good laws on the books in the US against perpetrators of human rights violations, Krikorian declared, “The inconsistency in applying sanctions, the inconsistency that the US has in applying principles, is a huge problem that I feel is not going to be solved while I’m still alive, honestly.” He expressed the hope that the new generation of lawyers in the room might solve it.

Two laws that Krikorian authored are among those not being enforced concerning Azerbaijan. First was Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan until such time as it made substantial progress in lifting the blockades of Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia, and ceased military activity against them. It was waived by successive presidents until Joe Biden, and then President Donald Trump again waived it, though Azerbaijan not only completed military operations and continued to blockade but also occupies over 200 square kilometers of territory of the Republic of Armenia and poses a threat to the sovereignty of the latter. This could happen, Krikorian said, “because, again, the world has changed so much that we’ve gone backwards to a point where countries feel they can do things and get away with them. And for the most part, they’re right.”

The second law Krikorian wrote is called the Humanitarian Aid Corridors Act (1994). He summarized it as “a really simple principle that no country that receives US aid can block aid going to another recipient — or, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It is not being used in the case of Armenia because of the initialing in 2025 in Washington of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, though portions of that agreement are being violated even today.

Krikorian went further concerning the current situation with Azerbaijan, declaring, “The genocidal intent is still there. So it’s a very dangerous time for all of us.”

Krikorian’s Harvard speech was based on his paper “Addressing Failed Legal Frameworks to Save Churches, Protect Freedom of Religion, and Confront Genocide in a New 21st Century: Doing Better to Do Good,” in the 2026 volume of conference proceedings published by the World Council of Churches titled Freedom of Religion and the Preservation of Armenian Religious, Cultural, and Historical Heritage in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh.