YEREVAN (Pan.am) — The Foreign Ministry has verbally conveyed a meeting proposal to Veronika Zonabend, wife of Ruben Vardanyan, who is being held in an Azerbaijani prison. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan confirmed the information, RFE/RL reported on August 11.
The ministry clarified that a proposal to meet Zonabend had already been discussed before her August 10 statement, but was actually conveyed to her after the statement the previous day in which she said no one from the government had contacted her, despite previous statements that contact had been made.
Asked who specifically from the Foreign Ministry would meet Zonabend, the ministry spokesperson said “the meeting will be organized cooperatively by the competent agencies.”
According to RFE/RL, the timing of the meeting is currently being coordinated.
In June, the wife of Ruben Vardanyan, who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Azerbaijan, announced a humanitarian initiative under which she intends to organize a visit to Baku by an international delegation of women.
Noting that Armenian citizens have for years been deprived of regular and independent humanitarian contact with their relatives, Zonabend appealed to Azerbaijan’s ombudsperson. She asked for the delegation’s visit to Baku to be facilitated, for a meeting to be arranged with Armenian prisoners held at Umbaki prison, and for parcels, photographs and letters prepared by their families to be delivered to them.
