CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (news.am) — Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, entrepreneur and philanthropist, as well as the co-founder and chairman of the Board of Directors of Moderna company, gave an interview to CNN commentator Christiane Amanpour. He spoke about what happened to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and its Armenians, and the Azerbaijani authorities’ arrest of philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, another cofounder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.
The video of this interview accessible here.
To Amanpour’s question as to how it happens that events take place in Nagorno-Karabakh in 24 hours that remain unnoticed and Nagorno-Karabakh is destroyed unnoticed, Afeyan responded that after 26 years of relative peace and negotiations, it was not possible to achieve lasting peace. He said that two years after the 2020 war, Azerbaijan blockaded the remaining territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, and in September of this year, Azerbaijan carried out a military offensive which led to the expulsion of the local indigenous Armenian people.
When asked about his personal motives for raising the alarm, Afeyan noted that he is an Armenian whose family was forced to be displaced for generations, and spoke about the Armenian Genocide and its consequences.
Amanpour asked also about the arrest of Vardanyan by the Azerbaijani authorities.
Afeyan said this issue is very painful for him, and noted that he has worked with Vardanyan for 23 years, within the scope of dozens of humanitarian and charitable projects.
