06/15/2026
Veronika Zonabend, wife of former Nagorno Karabakh Prime Minister and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, has announced a humanitarian initiative to restore contact between Armenian detainees held in Azerbaijan and their families.
Zonabend said she plans to organize an international women’s humanitarian delegation to travel to Baku in the coming weeks. The initiative, she said, was launched at the request of her husband, who has been held in Azerbaijani custody since September 2023 and has not been able to meet his granddaughters, born during his detention.
She stressed that the initiative extends beyond her husband’s case to all 18 Armenians currently held in Azerbaijan, many of whom have had no contact with their families for years, received no letters, and heard no voices of loved ones. Following the closure of the ICRC delegation office in Baku, she said, families have effectively lost independent humanitarian access to the detainees.
Zonabend has appealed to Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva requesting support for the delegation’s visit to the Umbaki Penitentiary Complex, as well as the transfer of family packages, photographs, letters, and personal belongings permitted under Azerbaijani law.
Over the next two weeks, organizers will collect letters of support for Armenian detainees and seek to deliver them alongside family packages. The names of delegation members will be announced at a later date.
“This initiative is not a political act. It is an attempt to restore at least a minimal connection between those in detention, their families, and all those who care about their fate.”
