“Wherever and however many times I was there [in Armenia], I kept coming across stories about Vardanyan: ‘Have you been to Dilijan?’ Have you seen what international school Vardanyan has opened there?’ or ‘We are sitting in a restaurant, celebrating! They received the Aurora Prize, which Vardanyan established’. Vardanyan spent all his time in Stepanakert for the last couple of years and spent countless amounts of his own money to feed, treat, and support people who were soon to leave their homes and become refugees. In my opinion, at some point it became obvious to the whole world that the exodus of Armenians from these territories was inevitable, that there would be thousands of refugees. Vardanyan thought so too. But he stayed there with his people in a totally desperate situation and continued to help. Ruben Vardanyan is an incredible romantic, a man of donkikhot nobility, the pride of Armenians all over the world and, I think, the great pride of all mankind. And now, having committed no crime, Vardanyan sits in prison in Azerbaijan and is accused of financing terrorism, creating and participating in the activities of illegal armed groups. The fact that the world has gone mad is no news to anyone, but I keep thinking it’s treatable…”