“I am in good shape, I feel strong, my health is fine, and I am at peace with myself and stronger in spirit than ever before,” the Armenian-born billionaire and philanthropist said on the 18th day of his hunger strike launched in protest against “egregious due process abuses” committed by Azerbaijani authorities.
“This is a protest against the very nature of this process itself, against the way the process is unfolding,” Vardanyan said in the 12-minute message recorded by the family during a phone call on Thursday. “I knew what I was getting into and I was and still am prepared for even worse conditions. I’m not a victim and I don’t want to be pitied because all this was a conscious decision.”
“My demands remain the same. If there is such a desire to judge me, judge me professionally, publicly, openly, in accordance with Azerbaijani laws and legal procedures, along with everyone else,” he said in reference to seven other former Karabakh leaders who are standing a separate trial in Baku.
“Do not violate your own laws and procedures. Do not falsify documents, do not manipulate evidence and protocols,” he added, appealing to the Azerbaijani authorities.
Vardanyan went on to reiterate that he does not regret relocating to Karabakh in September 2022 one year before it was recaptured by Azerbaijan. He apologized to the Karabakh children who “lost their homeland” as a result of the September 2023 Azerbaijani offensive and the ensuing exodus of the region’s ethic Armenian population.
“I was happy to be with you, the people of Artsakh, to always feel your love, warmth, gratitude and trust during that difficult time,” he said. “I’m proud of you -- real, down to earth people dear to me -- and I love you all sincerely.”
Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor during the exodus. He rejects a long list of accusations levelled against him. Those include “financing terrorism,” illegally entering Karabakh and supplying its armed forces with military equipment.
The 56-year-old tycoon, who had made his fortune in Russia, looked frail and had apparent bruises on his face when he was brought before an Azerbaijani military court last week. The images circulated by Azerbaijani state media added to public anger in Armenia with the Armenian government’s cautious stance on the separate trials of Vardanyan and 15 other Karabakh Armenians that began on January 17.
It was not until February 24 that the government denounced the “mock trials” through Foreign Ministry Ararat Mirzoyan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration has since continued to face opposition accusations that it is doing little to try to secure the release of at least 23 Armenians remaining in Azerbaijani captivity. Pashinian again claimed this week that Yerevan’s stronger reaction would only harm the captives.
Pashinian was already accused by critics last fall of helping Baku legitimize Vardanyan’s continuing imprisonment with his scathing comments about the former Karabakh premier made during an August 2024 news conference in Yerevan. Some of Pashinian’s staunch supporters continued to attack Vardanyan on social media even after the start of his trial.
Speaking in Russian, Vardanyan alluded to his Armenian detractors when he thanked unnamed Azerbaijanis who “preserved their human image” in their dealings with him.
“And I sincerely pity and forgive all those [Azerbaijani officials] who behaved differently as well as those Armenians in Armenia who treat me and my family the same way,” he said in his audio message.
Vardanyan also appeared to aim a jibe at Pashinian’s appeasement policy towards Azerbaijan when he stressed that Armenia needs a “real, long-term peace that’s not just signed on a piece of paper but also put into practice.”
“We must understand that nobody owes us anything and that real agreements can only be reached with strong people and a country that has an elite, honor and dignity,” he stressed.
He also told Armenians: “I realized here that one should never give in to despair, to indifference, and I understood why it is the most terrible of the seven sins … I urge you to never do that.”