Ruben Vardanyan’s son speaks on CNN about his father’s imprisonment and threats to his life

CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour talked with Davit Vardanyan, the son of Ruben Vardanyan, the former State Minister of Artsakh, who is imprisoned in Azerbaijan.

“Personally, I have only spoken with him once since his detainment in November. However, previously, he had been able to call my mother once a week, every Tuesday. However, since April 2, we have not heard his voice and grew increasingly alarmed about his condition, considering his prominence as an Armenian philanthropist and his outspoken position on the rights of 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and unfortunately and tragically, we found out that he had been on a hunger strike since April 5 only at the end of last week. However, on Saturday, his sister, my aunt, received a phone call, very unusually on weekend from him, where he said things that were even more concerning to us, namely that he had been moved to a full-isolation cell, meaning his conditions of imprisonment have even worsened,” Davit Vardanyan said, adding that Ruben Vardanyan, who has been on a hunger strike for over 20 days now, does not receive any medical care and has his blood pressure measured only once a day. At the end of the phone call, Ruben Vardanyan said, “Now, I understand that values and principles are more important than life itself.”

In response to the journalist’s question, whether Vardanyan was telegraphing that his life is at stake, Davit Vardanyan did not rule this out.