Ruben Vardanyan leaves Karabakh? Comment from Baku
Ruben Vardanyan leaves Karabakh
For the second day in a row, Azerbaijani media have claimed that Ruben Vardanyan left Karabakh and is in Moscow. Armenian sources have not yet commented. To assess the importance of this news, one must have reliable information about how Vardanyan left Karabakh and whether he will return, political observer Haji Namazov believes.
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On February 7 the Azerbaijani pro-government website caliber.az published news that the state minister of the unrecognized NKR, Ruben Vardanyan, left Karabakh in a Russian peacekeeper truck and is currently in Moscow.
This news was later disseminated by many sites in Azerbaijan.
JAMnews turned to political observer Haji Namazov for a comment.
How reliable is the information?
“The complete absence of input from Armenian sources or Vardanyan himself is interesting.
It’s no secret that in the part of Karabakh where the Armenian population lives and in Armenia, Azerbaijani media and Telegram channels are closely monitored. Each message that arouses the interest of the opposite side is immediately either disputed or confirmed. This even applies to government sources. For example, the ministries of defense of Azerbaijan and Armenia almost immediately dispute each other’s reports, and readers are already accustomed to such an information duel.
But this time, nothing of the sort happened. This can only mean that Vardanyan has really left Karabakh, or his exact whereabouts are unknown to Armenian sources. But Vardanyan himself also likes to communicate online and has repeatedly responded to Azerbaijani media in person. This time, he didn’t answer.
Therefore I believe that this information can be trusted.”
How did Vardanyan leave Karabakh?
According to Namazov, in order to assess the importance of this news, one must have reliable information about how Vardanyan left Karabakh and whether he will return:
“I have already come across two versions in the press of how Vardanyan could have left Karabakh. The first one was with the Russian peacekeeping contingent vehicle, the second one was by helicopter, again with the contingent.
If in the first case this could be an ordinary agreement with the peacekeeper command, and in the second, official Baku must have known about it. Neither of these versions can be ruled out. But the consequences will be different.”
Namazov believes that if Vardanyan left Karabakh in a supply vehicle, he can return in the same way.
“But if this happened by air with the permission of Azerbaijan, then the so-called state minister of the self-proclaimed regime will no longer be able to return to Khankendi (Stepanakert).
The explanation for this is simple: Baku could allow him to fly out of Khankendi only on one condition — that he would not return there. The other is practically impossible,” Namazov believes.
What could be the consequences?
“If Baku itself allowed Vardanyan’s departure or simply turned a blind eye, the consequences of such a step will not be long in coming.
With Arayik Harutyunyan and other men representing the Armenian population of Karabakh, official Baku, one might say, has developed working relations. Azerbaijan’s only demand was to remove Ruben Vardanyan from power in Khankendi.
If in this way Armenia has decided to fulfill this requirement, in the coming days we will have very high-profile events around this part of Karabakh. This may be the termination of the protest on the Lachin road, monitoring of mineral deposits by Azerbaijani specialists, and other steps towards rapprochemen,” Namazov concluded.
