Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint on the main road connecting Karabakh Armenia as he fled the region along with tens of thousands of its ordinary residents.
Azerbaijan’s State Security Service said the prominent billionaire was charged with “financing terrorism,” illegally entering Karabakh last year and supplying its armed forces with military equipment. It said an Azerbaijani court remanded him in pre-trial custody.
Born and raised in Armenia, Vardanyan is a former investment banker who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s. The 55-year-old relocated to Karabakh and was appointed as its state minister last November shortly before Baku blocked traffic through the Lachin corridor. He made defiant statements during and after his short tenure, urging the Karabakh Armenians to resist Azerbaijani efforts to force them into submission.
Vardanyan is the first Karabakh leader arrested after last week’s Azerbaijani military offensive that paved the way for the restoration of Azerbaijani control over the Armenian-populated territory. There are growing indications that Baku is seeking to also jail other current and former Karabakh officials.
Davit Babayan, a well-known adviser to Karabakh’s current and former presidents, said on Thursday that “the Azerbaijani side has demanded my arrival in Baku.” He said he will turn himself in later in the day because he does not want to “cause serious damage” to other Karabakh Armenians who have not yet left the region.
In Yerevan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed serious concern at “arbitrary arrests” made at the Azerbaijani checkpoint. Without mentioning Vardanyan by name, he said the Armenian government will take “necessary steps to protect the rights of arbitrarily arrested individuals, including in international bodies.”
The government on Wednesday asked the European Court of Human Rights to order Baku to urgently provide information about Vardanyan’s whereabouts and detention conditions. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said it will do its best to try to secure the tycoon’s release.
Vardanyan, who renounced his Russian citizenship late last year, has been increasingly critical of Pashinian in recent months, repeatedly denouncing his recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.