Vardanyan was born in 1958 in the village of Gemur in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Azerbaijan SSR.

For the next three years, Vardanyan worked for Aghbyur and Garoun magazines, and in 1987, became a member of the Writers Union of Armenia.

He joined Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) party in 1990, and until 1993 served as secretary of the Writer's Union of Armenia.

[1] From 1994 to 1996, Vardanyan worked for the ARF magazine Droshak in Athens and between 1996 and 1999 served as chief editor of the Media Center Yerevan.

In 1999, he was elected to the National Assembly of Armenia and that same year became a member of ARF Bureau, the party's highest decision-making body.