Diasporan Ruben Vardanyan Dismissed From the Post of Artsakh’s Minister of State

Artsakh President fires State Minister of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Ruben Vardanyan.

On February 23, President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan chaired a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers where he announced of the decree on the dismissal of Ruben Vardanyan from the position of State Minister. He highly appreciated Vardanyan's efforts both in raising international awareness of Artsakh and solving numerous domestic problems during the blockade, Harutyunyan’s office said in a press release.

Vardanyan is a Russian-Armenian billionaire who renounced his Russian citizenship and moves to Artsakh on September 1, 2022.

It’s unknown if Vardayan will remain in Artsakh or leave the blockade Republic.

We would like to remind our readers that during the Munich Security Conference last week, Aliyev said he will agree to talks with Artsakh only if Ruben Vardanyan resigns and leaves “our territory.” Vardanyan is a “criminal oligarch” who was “smuggled” to Karabakh from Russia, said the dictator of Azerbaijan.

Artsakh’s leadership immediately rejected Aliyev’s condition.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was present at that moment did not react to Aliyev’s condition.

A spokeswoman for President Harutyunyan, said Vardanyan’s current role is “Artsakh’s internal affair” and “can in no way be a topic of discussion for the government of Azerbaijan.”

President Harutyunyan noted today that he proposed Prosecutor General Gurgen Nersisyan to assume the responsibilities of the State Minister, taking into account his professional and human qualities, professionalism, fairness, principled stance and statehood-orientedness.

"Ruben Vardanyan and I have been together during this whole time, following the events and developments happening both in Artsakh and in the outer world on a daily basis, we have constantly exchanged ideas about finding solutions to the current situation. I am grateful to Mr. Vardanyan for his eagerness to always share the responsibility with me to the maximum extent in both friendly and partnership relations and did not try to put it on me referring to the constitutional norms. But on the other hand, he approached with awareness and understanding to the scope and extent of my personal responsibility for the situation created in Artsakh and all future problems," Harutyunyan said, according to the read-out.