Familiar absurdity: The Václav Havel Prize and Vardanyan’s “merits” Ukrainian experts on Caliber.Az

The nomination of the former head of the Karabakh separatists, Ruben Vardanyan, for the prestigious European Václav Havel Prize for Human Rights has provoked a strong reaction among experts and the public in Azerbaijan, as the absurdity of such a proposal raises questions even among those not deeply familiar with the murky past of this Russian-Armenian oligarch.

In this context, it is enough to recall the charges on which Vardanyan was sentenced by the Baku Military Court to 20 years in prison: crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism, financing terrorism, and other serious offences, as well as his inclusion in the list of the well-known Ukrainian website “Myrotvorets” for openly supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine and participating in acts undermining the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state.

These and other facts raise serious questions about the staggering absurdity of nominating a person with such a record for a human rights award bearing the name of the renowned Czech dissident and first president of the Czech Republic.

What does Ukraine’s expert and analytical community think about this initiative? Ukrainian political analysts shared their views on the matter with Caliber.Az.

In particular, well-known Ukrainian political analyst and economist Oleksandr Okhrimenko said that it is extremely difficult to comment on attempts to whitewash a figure like Vardanyan through European awards.

“At the same time, it should also be noted that the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize has absolutely nothing to do with Vardanyan’s activities; its nature and meaning are completely opposite to everything he represents.

The very fact that Vardanyan — who is listed in the database of the Ukrainian website ‘Myrotvorets’ — has been nominated for this prize is, to put it mildly, highly suspicious, since that database includes individuals who promote the so-called Kremlin and Putin narratives and support the occupation of our country. Awarding a European prize to a person who justifies Russia’s war against Ukraine is completely absurd.

It creates the impression of some kind of corrupt scheme, where someone is trying to buy this award for Vardanyan, or he himself is acting through intermediaries. In other words, this appears to be a purely corrupt arrangement, although proving something like that is difficult,” Okhrimenko said.

In turn, political strategist Taras Zahorodniy, responding to a question about whether the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe would support Vardanyan’s candidacy, noted that the mechanisms of European politics are often characterised by a “blurred ideology,” guided by the principle of trying to please everyone, where politicians themselves are not held accountable for the principles they publicly advocate.

“It is enough to recall how European politicians quite literally held Azerbaijan back from restoring control over its occupied territories. Another issue — and this is a chronic problem among Europeans — is that they are unable to distinguish good from evil. A third aspect is their adherence to the principle that ‘honest people are expensive.’ At the same time, there is currently a great deal of Russian money circulating in Europe, and European institutions have become heavily corrupted by Russian influence.

In this regard, one may recall the case of the ‘Epstein files’ and the connections between former Norwegian Prime Minister and former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and the notorious criminal figure Jeffrey Epstein. According to correspondence linked to the case, Epstein proposed arranging contact between Russian diplomats, including Sergey Lavrov, and Jagland. It is also known that Jagland lobbied for the return of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2019.

As for Vardanyan specifically, there is another noteworthy fact: at one point, certain institutional bodies called for sanctions to be imposed on him and his associates. Therefore, none of this comes as a surprise. Such is the traditional absurdity of certain European political circles, further reinforced by Russian money,” Zahorodniy concluded.