Azerbaijan Arrests Former Top Karabakh Official as Armenian Exodus Grows

Azerbaijan Arrests Former Top Karabakh Official as Armenian Exodus Grows
Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region ride in the back of a truck as they arrive in the border village of Kornidzor, Armenia, on Sept. 26, 2023. Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters
Reuters
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GORIS, Armenia—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.