Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has asked visiting US Under Secretary of State Allison Hooker to clarify what steps Washington is taking to secure the release of 23 Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, citing a pledge made by US President Donald Trump during their August meeting in Washington.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Pashinyan said he raised the issue during his 17 November meeting with Hooker in Yerevan.
‘I specifically addressed that issue, noting that President Trump has spoken, including publicly, about his commitment,’ Pashinyan said. ‘I presented what we are doing at the bilateral level and asked the US under secretary to inform us what efforts the United States is making in that direction, and to keep the issue in the spotlight’.
Trump told Pashinyan at the White House on 8 August that he intended to request the release of the ‘23 Christians’ held in Azerbaijan, adding that he believed Baku would comply. It remains unclear whether Trump has since raised the matter directly with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Hooker’s visit to Yerevan was followed by meetings in Baku, where discussions focused on the US-administered Trump Route connecting Azerbaijan, its exclave Nakhchivan, and Turkey via Armenia. Pashinyan previously said Armenia and the US are discussing two possible models for granting construction rights — a 99-year term or a 49-year term. The Armenian side, he added, is coordinating work through Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan.
According to Armenian media, Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser Hikmet Hajiyev told Armenian officials in late August that Baku could not fulfil Trump’s request for the prisoners’ release. He reportedly objected to the term ‘Christian prisoners’, which Yerevan has used to describe the detainees.
Among the 23 Armenians in Azerbaijani custody are eight former political and military leaders from Nagorno-Karabakh who have been on trial since January. Azerbaijani prosecutors have sought life sentences for five of them, and 20-year terms for two others.
Pashinyan has been repeatedly criticised by domestic opponents for not securing the prisoners’ return. He has rejected the accusations, noting that neither the peace agreement initialled in Washington nor the joint declaration signed by Trump, Aliyev, and Pashinyan commits Azerbaijan to releasing the detainees.
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