CNA Staff, Sep 27, 2023 / 14:43 pm
Ruben Vardanyan, a former high-ranking official in the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, was arrested by Azerbaijan authorities on Sept. 27 as he attempted to flee the region along with over 50,000 other ethnic Armenian refugees.
The Azeri Press Agency (APA), an Azeri state media outlet, published a photo showing Vardanyan, 55, in handcuffs and reported that authorities had taken him to Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan.
“He was brought to the city of Baku accompanied by the employees of the State Border Service’s Agile Movement Forces,” APA reported, adding that “the detained person was handed over to the relevant state authorities to make an appropriate decision.”
Vardanyan is a former state minister of the Republic of Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian separatist government that was defeated by a short but intense Azeri military offensive on Sept. 19.