Veronika Zonabend, the wife of unjustly imprisoned Armenian businessman and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, has sent an open letter to Alen Simonyan, Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Armenia, requesting to accompany him on his potential trip to Baku and to help arrange meetings between the Armenian hostage families and their unjustly imprisoned loved ones.
The letter, published Monday, September 8, 2026, follows Simonyan’s public remarks last week in which he did not rule out traveling to Azerbaijan for further discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agenda. Simonyan, who was appointed Secretary of the Security Council on August 13 after serving as Speaker of the National Assembly from 2021 to 2026, met with Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev in Bishkek on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit that concluded September 1, 2026. Following that meeting, Simonyan told reporters that Yerevan does not intend to remove the fate of the Armenian hostages from its agenda.
Zonabend opened her letter by referencing Simonyan’s own prior statement on the humanitarian imperative. She quoted him directly: “On the path toward achieving peace, resolving all humanitarian issues is of vital importance, and in this context, the urgent and safe return of the Armenian hostages is of paramount importance.” She then wrote that she shares this position and asked whether he would be willing to allow her and other hostage families to join his trip.
“I am ready to travel to Baku with you,” Zonabend wrote. “I know that members of other hostages’ families share this wish as well. I ask you to consider the possibility of our joining the trip, should it take place, and to assist in arranging meetings with our loved ones.”
She addressed two specific questions to Simonyan. First, whether he plans to visit the Armenian hostages during his trip. Second, whether he would be willing to meet with the hostages’ families before the trip, hear their requests, and accept letters to be delivered to the hostages.
“For our families, the opportunity to see our loved ones, learn about their condition, and personally convey words of love and support is of immense importance,” Zonabend wrote. “For the hostages, this is an opportunity to feel that they remain connected to their families and that their fate has not been forgotten.”
The letter is the latest in a widening advocacy effort by Zonabend on behalf of the Armenian hostages held in Baku. On June 15, at Vardanyan’s request, she announced an initiative to organize an international women’s humanitarian delegation to visit the hostages at the Umbaki Penitentiary Complex outside Baku and to deliver letters, photographs, and family packages to prisoners who have in some cases gone years without contact with their loved ones. On July 8, she sent open letters to four senior officials whose engagement she said would be essential to organizing the visit and ensuring the safety of its participants: Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva, International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas. Monday’s letter is her first direct appeal to Simonyan.
The letter comes days after attorney Siranush Sahakyan, representative of Armenian hostages before the European Court of Human Rights, disclosed in a September 4 press briefing that Armenian Christian hostages held in Baku have had their cross tattoos burned off their skin through torture and been forced to read the Quran. Sahakyan said the hostages are also held in “absolute isolation” from other prisoners and have arrived at proceedings with fractures from beatings. Sahakyan also confirmed that the European Court of Human Rights has officially advanced the Vardanyan case to full examination.
Vardanyan is one of 19 Armenian hostages currently held in Azerbaijan, seized in September 2023, in the days surrounding Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of occupied Artsakh, when Azerbaijani forces detained members of the region’s former military and political leadership as they fled alongside more than 120,000 Armenians forcibly displaced from their homeland after a nine-month blockade and military assault. Five former Artsakh leaders are serving life sentences: former President Arayik Harutyunyan, former Foreign Minister David Babayan, former National Assembly Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, former Defense Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, and former deputy commander Davit Manukyan. Former presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan received 20-year terms, as did Vardanyan, whose case was tried separately and concluded with his sentencing on February 17. Other officials and civilians received prison terms ranging from 15 to 19 years. Amnesty International condemned the verdicts as a travesty and a mockery of justice. The International Committee of the Red Cross, the last independent body with access to the prisoners, was expelled from Azerbaijan in September 2025. Former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo published a legal opinion in August 2023 concluding that the nine-month Azerbaijani blockade of Artsakh constituted genocide under the Genocide Convention.
