Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor as he fled the region along with tens of thousands of its ordinary residents. He was charged with “financing terrorism,” illegally entering Karabakh and supplying its armed forces with military equipment. He denies the accusations.
Vardanyan, 55, went on hunger strike in an Azerbaijani prison last month to demand the immediate release of himself and seven other Karabakh Armenian leaders also jailed by Baku. He reportedly agreed to stop refusing food after Azerbaijani authorities allowed to him talk to his wife, Veronika Zonabend, by phone three weeks later.
According to Vardanyan’s press office in Yerevan, he also managed to send a written message to participants of the annual award ceremony of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity which he had launched, together with two other Armenian Diaspora philanthropists, in 2015. Zonabend read it out during the ceremony held in Los Angeles on Thursday.
“My decision to move to Artsakh -- Nagorno Karabakh -- was motivated by the Aurora heroes: I made a choice to be with the people who needed help and wanted to help in any way I could,” read the message. “Being here, totally isolated from the world for nearly eight months, I have a lot of time to reflect.
“I have no regrets about taking that path. I am deeply grateful to you for inspiring me to do the right thing. Now, I understand much better what motivates Marguerite Barankitse, Tom Catena, and other Aurora laureates, and why they have this strong belief in the power of one individual to make a difference.”
The Aurora Prize is an annual international award in memory of the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. It is designed to honor individuals around the world who risk their lives to help others. The latest winner of the prize carrying a $1 million grant is Denis Mukwege, a gynecological surgeon and human rights activist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Born and raised in Armenia, Vardanyan is a former investment banker who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s. He is also known as a philanthropist who has financed many charity projects in Armenia and Karabakh.