Ruben Vardanyan’s Wife Offers to Travel to Baku — Azerbaijani Media Warns She Could Face 5 Years in Prison

An Azerbaijani media outlet says Veronika Zonabend, the wife of imprisoned Armenian philanthropist and former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, could face up to five years in prison if she travels to Baku, citing a 2022 visit she made to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The report surfaced as Zonabend renewed her push for direct access to Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.

On Sept. 8, Zonabend wrote to Armenia’s National Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan after learning of his possible visit to Baku. She said she was prepared to travel with him and asked whether he would meet Armenian prisoners and help their families secure visits with them.

“I am ready to travel to Baku with you,” Zonabend wrote, adding that relatives of other prisoners had expressed the same desire. She also asked Simonyan to meet the families before any trip and carry letters to those being held.

Azerbaijani outlet Unikal.az has separately examined whether Zonabend could be prosecuted if she enters Azerbaijan, pointing to her visit to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2022. Another Azerbaijani outlet, News24.az, reported that the potential case would depend in part on the route she used and whether Azerbaijani authorities had authorized the trip.

Tatevik Hayrapetyan, an Armenian historian, Azerbaijan specialist and former member of parliament, said Wednesday that the Azerbaijani coverage amounted to a warning aimed at discouraging Zonabend from traveling to Baku. Hayrapetyan holds a doctorate in history and has focused much of her research on Azerbaijan’s domestic politics and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Hayrapetyan cited an Azerbaijani report saying Zonabend could face a prison term of up to five years over what Baku considers an illegal entry into Nagorno-Karabakh in 2022.

“If Zonabend enters Azerbaijani territory, she may be held accountable for her illegal visit to Karabakh in 2022,” the Azerbaijani report said, according to Hayrapetyan.

Hayrapetyan described the coverage as an attempt to prevent Zonabend from seeing her husband and said continued international attention to the Armenians held in Baku remains essential to efforts to secure their release.

Zonabend’s proposed visit is part of a broader campaign she launched this summer to organize an international delegation of women to travel to Azerbaijan and meet Armenian prisoners. She has sought assistance from both Armenian and Azerbaijani officials, including help arranging visits and delivering letters, photographs and packages from families.

Vardanyan was detained by Azerbaijani authorities in September 2023 while leaving Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia following Azerbaijan’s military offensive and the subsequent mass exodus of the region’s Armenian population.

A Baku court sentenced him to 20 years in prison on Feb. 17, 2026. His family and legal team have rejected the charges and challenged the fairness of the proceedings.

Azerbaijan is currently holding 19 Armenians, and their continued detention remains one of the unresolved humanitarian issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The issue was not included in the peace agreement initialed by the two countries during their Washington summit in 2025.

Hayrapetyan also criticized the lack of progress since that meeting, questioning whether previous U.S. pledges to address the prisoners’ cases had produced any tangible result.

For the families, however, Zonabend has framed the proposed trip in more immediate terms: an opportunity to see their relatives, learn about their condition and show them that they have not been forgotten.

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