‘Republic’ to be dissolved by January 2024 – DW – 09/28/2023

Azerbaijan charged the former head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government with financing terrorism.

Ruben Vardanyan, who formerly led the government of the self-declared republic, was arrested on Wednesday.

Vardanyan was accused of illegally crossing the Azerbaijani border, creating illegal armed formations and financing terrorism and was placed in pre-trial detention.

The billionaire, who made his wealth in Russia, was arrested while trying to enter Armenia and was subsequently taken to the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

He had moved to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2022 where he served as the head of the self-declared republic for several months, before stepping down earlier in 2023.

The self-declared government of Nagorno-Karabakh announced that it will dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by January 1 2024.

A decree to that effect was signed by the region’s separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan.

The document cited an agreement reached last week to end the fighting under which Azerbaijan will allow the “free, voluntary and unhindered movement” of the region’s residents and disarm troops in Armenia in exchange.

Nagorno-Karabakh was recaptured by Azerbaijan after a lightning military offensive last week that forced ethnic Armenian fighters of the region to lay down weapons.

The region is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, but Armenia and Azerbaijan have long fought over it.

The two, both former Soviet republics, went to war over the region between 1988 and 1994 as Armenians in the region sought to break away from the newly independent nation of Azerbaijan. 

Armenian fighters won the first war that ended in 1994. But during a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan ended that control and Baku retook most of the region. 

rm/ab (AP, Reuters, dpa, AFP)