Azerbaijan Arrests Former Top Karabakh Minister as Exodus Tops 50,000

Ethnic Armenians wait to be evacuated from Stepanakert on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Siranush Sargsyan / AFP)
Ethnic Armenians wait to be evacuated from Stepanakert on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Siranush Sargsyan / AFP)
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Azerbaijan Arrests Former Top Karabakh Minister as Exodus Tops 50,000

Ethnic Armenians wait to be evacuated from Stepanakert on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Siranush Sargsyan / AFP)
Ethnic Armenians wait to be evacuated from Stepanakert on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Siranush Sargsyan / AFP)

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.

His wife Veronika Zonabend said on his Telegram channel that he had been arrested while trying to flee as part of a mass departure by ethnic Armenians after Azerbaijan took back control of Karabakh in a lightning offensive last week.

Azerbaijan's border service said he had been taken to the capital Baku and handed over to other state agencies.

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic Armenians who broke away in the 1990s in the first of two wars there since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan says it wants to peacefully reintegrate the Armenians and will guarantee their civic rights, including to practice their Christian religion. It says no one is forcing them to leave.

But given the bloody history between the two sides, ethnic Armenians are fleeing in fear, abandoning their homes and boarding cars and trucks that have jammed the snaking mountain road that leads to Armenia.

Karabakh authorities said more than 50,000 had left so far, out of an estimated ethnic Armenian population of 120,000.

Azerbaijan rejects Armenian accusations of ethnic cleansing, but images of tens of thousands of desperate people on the move have provoked widespread international alarm.

The European Union said it was sending more humanitarian aid "in solidarity with those who had no choice but to flee" - a significant change from an earlier statement where it referred to people who had "decided to flee".

UN special rapporteur Morris Tidball-Binz said Azerbaijan must "promptly and independently investigate alleged or suspected violations of the right to life reported in the context of its latest military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh".

Germany added its voice to US calls for Azerbaijan to allow international observers into Karabakh.

"What is needed now is transparency, and the eyes and ears of the international community on the spot," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Mountain road

It was not clear on what grounds Vardanyan, the former Karabakh state minister, had been held, but Azerbaijan has signaled it will seek to prosecute some of the separatists.

"We have accused elements of the criminal regime and we will bring them to justice," President Ilham Aliyev said last week, without naming anyone or specifying any crime. He described the Karabakh leadership as a "criminal junta" and a "den of poison".

During his short time in office, Azerbaijan had called Vardanyan an obstacle to peace. He had also fallen out with Armenia's prime minister over the role of Russian peacekeepers.

His wife Zonabend said she asked for people's "prayers and support for my husband's safe release".

Tens of thousands have been killed in wars over Karabakh since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, of which both Armenia and Azerbaijan were part.

Karabakh authorities said they lost at least 200 people in Azerbaijan's offensive last week. Baku said on Wednesday that 192 of its soldiers had been killed, and published their names and photographs. More than 50 were young men in their teens.

The mountain road that winds out of Karabakh towards Armenia has been choked for days, with many people sleeping in cars or searching for firewood to keep warm. The journey of just 77 km (48 miles) to the border was taking at least 30 hours.

"I left everything behind. I don't know what is in store for me. I have nothing. I don't want anything," Vera Petrosyan, a 70-year-old retired teacher, told Reuters.

Local authorities said at least 68 people had been killed, 105 were missing and nearly 300 were injured in a huge explosion at a fuel station in Karabakh on Monday. It was unclear what caused it.

Russia said its peacekeeping force in the region had evacuated more than 120 people by helicopter.

Armenia is angry that the Russian peacekeepers, in place since a 44-day war in 2020, did nothing to prevent Azerbaijan from launching its offensive, which swiftly forced the Karabakh leadership to agree to disband and disarm.

With Russia distracted by the war in Ukraine, the crisis has highlighted its waning ability to play the role of security guarantor in the Caucasus region, where Türkiye, Iran and the United States are competing with it for influence.



A US Judge Halts the Deportation of the Egyptian Family of the Boulder Firebombing Suspect

A placard saying "Boulder strong" is displayed on a makeshift memorial outside the Boulder Courthouse, days after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mark Makela
A placard saying "Boulder strong" is displayed on a makeshift memorial outside the Boulder Courthouse, days after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mark Makela
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A US Judge Halts the Deportation of the Egyptian Family of the Boulder Firebombing Suspect

A placard saying "Boulder strong" is displayed on a makeshift memorial outside the Boulder Courthouse, days after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mark Makela
A placard saying "Boulder strong" is displayed on a makeshift memorial outside the Boulder Courthouse, days after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mark Makela

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the family of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, to ensure the protection of the family's constitutional rights.

US District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. US immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday, The Associated Press said.

Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in Sunday's attack in downtown Boulder. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and authorities say he confessed to the attack in custody.

His family members have not been charged.

Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the US illegally, and US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. It’s rare that a criminal suspect's family members are detained and threatened with deportation.

“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives," attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit.

Eric Lee, one of the attorney's representing the family, said efforts to deport them should not happen in a democracy.

“The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status,” he said.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the plaintiff’s claims as “absurd” and “an attempt to delay justice.”

“Just like her criminal husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result,” she said in a statement.

Witnesses describe attack at vigil

Around 200 people squeezed into the local Jewish Community Center on Wednesday evening for a vigil that featured prayer, songs, a short speech by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses to the attack.

Rachelle Halpern, who has been walking with the group since 2023, said she remembers thinking it was strange to see a man with a canister looking like he was going to spray pesticide on the grass. Then she heard a crash and screams and saw flames around her feet.

“A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband," she said. "People immediately, three or four men immediately rushed to her to smother the flames.”

Her description prompted murmurs from the audience members. One woman’s head dropped into her hands.

“I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs burning, and don’t remember those next few moments,” said a victim, who didn't want to be identified and spoke off camera, over the event's speakers. “Even as I was watching it unfold before my eyes, even then, it didn’t seem real.”

Defendant's family investigated Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, a 17-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, according to El Gamal's lawsuit. They were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, Lee said.

“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Noem said in a statement.

Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, following the Boulder attack.

Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents. El Gamal said she was “shocked” to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to her lawsuit.

Victims increase to 15 people and a dog

Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack to 15 from 12, plus a dog.

Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. Details about how the victims were impacted would be explained in criminal charges set to be filed Thursday, according to Boulder County District Attorney's office spokesperson Shannon Carbone.

Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.

According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.

The family's immigration status Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.

Soliman arrived in the US in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired.

Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.

Soliman's wife is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman's asylum application.

The case against Soliman

Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year, the affidavit said.

Soliman is being held in a county jail on a $10 million cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday. His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday. Public defenders’ policy prohibits speaking to the media.

The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. It happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.