Ruben Vardanyan was not allowed to finish what he wanted to tell Azerbaijan’s ombudsman
Ruben Vardanyan appeals to Azerbaijan’s ombudsman
“During a phone call with his family, Ruben Vardanyan tried to deliver a public appeal to Azerbaijan’s ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva. The call was forcibly cut off,” members of Ruben Vardanyan’s family said.
A month ago, the Baku Military Court sentenced former state minister of the former unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Russian-Armenian businessman, dollar billionaire and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan to 20 years in prison.
BACKGROUND
In 2022, he gave up his Russian passport and obtained Armenian citizenship. In the same year, he moved to Nagorno-Karabakh, which at that time was the unrecognised NKR. He said he planned to use his resources and connections to address the region’s problems. On 4 November 2022, Vardanyan took office as state minister.
During the three and a half months he held the post, Vardanyan remained in the spotlight of the Azerbaijani authorities and media. A prominent and internationally known figure drew global media attention to the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh’s self-determination.
He stayed in the region throughout the 10-month blockade imposed by Azerbaijan. In September 2023 Azerbaijan launched a military operation. After that operation the unrecognised NKR announced it would cease to exist. Baku then opened the border crossing with Armenia. Almost the entire Armenian population left their homeland.
Azerbaijan did not block people from leaving. However, authorities detained several figures at the border crossing, including former presidents, the speaker of parliament, senior military officials and former state minister Ruben Vardanyan.
According to his family, Vardanyan tried to make a public appeal to Azerbaijan’s human rights commissioner out of necessity.
“For ten days before that, Ruben tried unsuccessfully to contact her through his lawyer, written appeals and phone calls.”
The family says Vardanyan, like all other Armenian detainees, has no institutional protection in Azerbaijan. His relatives explain their concern about their fate by “the dismantling of independent human rights mechanisms in Azerbaijan” and by the departure of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“We also fear that even short phone calls — the only remaining means of communication — may stop,” family members warn.
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Request for a meeting with the ombudsman: Vardanyan’s interrupted appeal
Along with the family’s statement, Ruben Vardanyan’s official Facebook page published an audio recording of his appeal to Azerbaijan’s ombudsman. The family hopes that in this way the message will “reach the addressee”.
Here is what Vardanyan managed to say before the call was cut off:
“I have to address you, Ms Aliyeva, ombudsman of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I do so because, although you kindly gave me your phone number during our first meeting under cameras in October 2023, I have not been able to reach you for the past ten days. I tried through my lawyer. I sent written appeals. I also tried to call. None of these efforts worked. That is why I have to address you publicly. Unfortunately, I have no other way to tell you what is happening here to me and to my colleagues.
I ask you for a meeting. You are the only head of a public institution I can turn to in the current situation. All other bodies in Azerbaijan carry out either state control or… [law enforcement officers interrupt the conversation].
And they do not even allow me to do this. I want to say that, unfortunately, they do not allow me to contact you. […]
I cannot obtain the verdict. A month has already passed. I cannot get it in Russian, Armenian or Azerbaijani. I do not know why the court convicted me or under which articles. I ask for a meeting so that I can discuss all this. Unfortunately, the Red Cross has left. No other institution here can stay in contact with us. The Armenian government has no representation here and it is busy with supplies… [the call cuts off].
On the trials of Armenian detainees
On 17 February 2026, the Baku Military Court sentenced former state minister Ruben Vardanyan to 20 years in prison. The court considered his case separately from the cases of the former leadership of Karabakh.
The court found Vardanyan guilty of serious crimes, including waging an aggressive war, financing terrorism and deporting people.
Armenian human rights defenders say the process had a political rather than legal character.
Vardanyan himself called what happened a farce and an imitation of justice rather than a real trial.
Two weeks earlier, on 5 February, an Azerbaijani court sentenced several former Karabakh officials to life imprisonment. Those included former president Arayik Harutyunyan, Defence Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, deputy commander Davit Manukyan, parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanyan and foreign minister Davit Babayan.
The court sentenced former presidents Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan to 20 years in prison. Their age explains the lighter sentence. Under Azerbaijani law, courts do not impose life imprisonment on people older than 65.
Independent media representatives and human rights defenders did not gain access to the court hearings in the cases of the Armenian detainees.
Ruben Vardanyan appeals to Azerbaijan’s ombudsman
