Vagif Khachatryan, a 68-year-old veteran of the First Karabakh War in the early 1990s, pleaded not guilty but was convicted of crimes including "genocide."
The decision comes amid the mass exodus of Armenians from Karabakh and after the arrest by Azerbaijan of one of the region's most prominent former officials.
The Armenian prime minister said that, while Armenia was prepared to accommodate those leaving Karabakh, they would not be under direct threat if they stayed put, under Azerbaijani rule.
Baku says it won't stop until it has achieved the dissolution of the Armenian-populated region's de facto government and the disbanding of its armed forces.
Azerbaijan continues the arduous work of demining the territories it regained in the 2020 Second Karabakh War, accepting any international help offered. Questions remain, though, about the timeline and effectiveness of the work.
The arrest sets a chilling precedent, as most of the adult male population of the region has either fought against Azerbaijan or served in the local army, which Baku calls an "illegal armed formation."
Azerbaijan seems happy with the EU-mediated track of negotiations with Armenia while seeing Russia as a barrier on the path to integrating Nagorno-Karabakh.