Tatoyan asks US vice president to press for release of Armenians held in Baku

Arman Tatoyan, head of the Wings of Unity political initiative and a candidate for prime minister, has publicly pressed US Vice President James David Vance to use his upcoming trip to the region to secure the release of Armenians detained in Azerbaijan.

In a letter to Vance – part personal note, part checklist of urgent requests – Tatoyan reminded the US official of shared values, even quoting a line from Vance’s own book about loyalty and family to underscore the point. He thanked Vance and President Trump for their role last spring in helping avert renewed aggression against Armenia and for the TRIPP agreement, and said Armenians still need concrete help.

Tatoyan laid out three core concerns he wants raised during the visit: the 19 Armenian prisoners and hostages he says are being illegally held and tortured in Baku; the occupation since 2021 of more than 200 square kilometres of Armenian sovereign territory, which he says has left border communities insecure; and what his team describes as ethnic cleansing in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in September 2023 that displaced some 120,000 people.

He added that his team has prepared special files and evidence on these issues and stands ready to share them with Vance’s office to help shape US policy. Tatoyan also urged that the release of the 19 detainees during Vance’s visit to Azerbaijan would bring hope and justice to many Armenian families – a line he framed as both practical and symbolic.

Vance is expected to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan in February; some reports place him in Yerevan on February 9. Tatoyan, for his part, will be traveling in early February – Paris on February 4 and the US from February 5–7 for meetings with diaspora groups and lectures at Columbia, Yale and Penn.