Ruben Vardanyan to German TV channel: People of Artsakh do not see their future as part of Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, December 7. /ARKA/. The people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) do not see their future as part of Azerbaijan and have long expressed their clear position on this, Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan said in an interview with German ZDF TV.

"Azerbaijan should also understand and accept that the only way to achieve peace is to live in one region side by side but not together. I had an opportunity to state this once again in an interview with the German public TV channel ZDF," Vardanyan wrote in his TG channel.

Vardanyan said also that the TV channel aired a large report about Armenia and Artsakh, in particular, about the Azerbaijani aggression on 13 September against Armenia's sovereign territory and its consequences, as well as published footage of a rally of thousands of people held in October in Artsakh capital Stepanakert.

"The attention of the world media to Artsakh's problems can only be welcomed," the state minister added.

Ruben Vardanyan 54, whose total assets, according to Forbes magazine, are estimated at $1.3 billion, renounced his Russian citizenship in September, 2022 and moved to Karabakh, because ‘its people who have survived two wars and lost their relatives and loved ones in the struggle for independence, are abandoned, forgotten and no one needs them.’

Later he was appointed as state minister, an equivalent of prime minister, by Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan.

‘I believe that after the 2020 war, we, Armenians all over the world, have an obligation to stand together with the people of Artsakh,' Vardanyan said earlier.  He also said that all his assets in Russia were moved to his family fund. -0-