The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Artur Sargsyan, Armenia's acting chargé d'affaires, to deliver an official statement protesting the "unfriendly steps" of the Armenian side. The basis for this action was statements by Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan, who asserted that his country "should not become a province and be governed like Belarus."
A citizen of Armenia, former Minister of State of Nagorno-Karabakh Ruben Vardanyan was brought to justice on charges of financing terrorism, illegally crossing the state border to commit terrorist attacks and organizing illegal armed groups. The State Security Service of Azerbaijan reported this.
The day before, Vardanyan was detained by Azerbaijani border guards. Previously, he was a citizen of the Russian Federation, a billionaire on the Forbes list. Vardanyan has repeatedly criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for “surrendering” Karabakh and called on the Russian leadership to provide support to the region and Armenia.
Today it was announced that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will officially cease to exist in 2024. Nikol Pashinyan said that there will be no Armenians left in the region in the coming days: “This is an act of ethnic cleansing and deprivation of the homeland, which we have already talked about more than once.” Almost half of the Armenian population of the unrecognized republic left for Armenia.