Azerbaijan arrests former top Karabakh official as Armenian exodus grows
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[September 27, 2023]
By Felix Light
GORIS, Armenia (Reuters) - A former head of the breakaway ethnic
Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh was arrested by Azerbaijan on
Wednesday as he tried to escape into Armenia as part of an exodus of
tens of thousands of people that has triggered a humanitarian crisis.
Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker and philanthropist, headed
Karabakh's separatist government between November 2022 and February
2023.
His wife Veronika Zonabend said on his Telegram channel that he had been
arrested while trying to flee as part of a mass departure by ethnic
Armenians after Azerbaijan took back control of the territory last week.
Azerbaijan's border service said he had been taken to the capital Baku
and handed over to other state agencies.
Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but
populated mostly by ethnic Armenians who broke away in the 1990s in the
first of two wars there since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Fearing Azerbaijani reprisals because of the bloody history between the
two sides, ethnic Armenians are abandoning their homes and fleeing en
masse in cars and trucks along the snaking mountain road that leads to
Armenia. Karabakh authorities said 47,115 people had left so far, out of
an estimated ethnic Armenian population of 120,000 people.
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Western governments fear a humanitarian disaster and are pressing for
Azerbaijan to allow international observers into Karabakh to monitor its
treatment of the local population.
"What is needed now is transparency, and the eyes and ears of the
international community on the spot," German Foreign Minister Annalena
Baerbock posted on X, formerly Twitter.
"It would be a sign of confidence that Azerbaijan is serious about its
commitments to the security and wellbeing of the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh if it allows international observers".
ACCUSATIONS
Azerbaijan says it wants to peacefully reintegrate the ethnic Armenian
residents of Karabakh and emphatically rejects Armenian accusations of
ethnic cleansing.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said last week that Armenians could
"finally breathe a sigh of relief" and would be able to vote, receive
state education and freely practice their Christian religion in mainly
Muslim Azerbaijan. Baku would turn Karabakh into a "paradise", he said.
It was not clear on what grounds Vardanyan had been held, but Azerbaijan
has signaled it will seek to prosecute some figures in the Karabakh
leadership.
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![](../images/092723PIX/news_u6.jpg)
Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region ride in the back of a truck as
they arrive in the border village of Kornidzor, Armenia, September
26, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze
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"We have accused elements of the criminal regime and we will bring
them to justice," Aliyev said last week, without naming anyone or
specifying any crime.
Zonabend said she asked for people's "prayers and support for my
husband's safe release".
The mountain road that winds out of Karabakh towards Armenia has
been choked for days, with many people sleeping in cars or searching
for firewood to keep warm. The journey of just 77 km (48 miles) to
the border was taking at least 30 hours.
"I left everything behind. I don't know what is in store for me. I
have nothing. I don't want anything," Vera Petrosyan, a 70-year-old
retired teacher, told Reuters.
DEATH TOLL
Local authorities said at least 68 people had been killed, 105 were
missing and nearly 300 were injured in a huge explosion at a fuel
station in Karabakh on Monday. It was unclear what caused it.
Russia said its peacekeeping force in the region had evacuated more
than 120 people by helicopter.
Armenia is angry that the Russian peacekeepers, in place since a
44-day war in 2020, did nothing to prevent Azerbaijan from launching
its offensive last week.
With Russia distracted by the war in Ukraine, the crisis has
highlighted its waning ability to play the role of security
guarantor in the Caucasus region, where Turkey, Iran and the United
States are vying with it for influence.
Tens of thousands have been killed in wars over Karabakh since the
1991 fall of the Soviet Union, of which both Armenia and Azerbaijan
were part.
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The toll climbed further in last week's fighting, in which Karabakh
authorities said they lost at least 200 people.
Azerbaijan said on Wednesday that 192 of its soldiers had been
killed, and published their names and photographs on the defense
ministry website. More than 50 were young men in their teens.
(Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Gareth Jones and Philippa
Fletcher)
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