The Human Rights Defender of the Artsakh Republic Artak Beglaryan has rejected the reports about gay person attacked in Artsakh.
“Moments ago, an explicit fake page on Facebook published a post claiming that a gay person was severely beaten in Artsakh. The person in question was identified as a Diaspora Armenian named James Markosyan who had visited Artsakh for the Holiday Season from France. Regretfully, some media outlets republished the report without checking its veracity,” Beglaryan wrote on Facebook.
In his message the Ombudsman states that respective enquiries to the Artsakh Republic foreign ministry, ministry of healthcare and the police sent prove that no person with the indicated name has ever filed a complaint to the police., applied for a medical aid and ever received a visa to enter Artsakh.
Furthermore, Beglaryan points out that the photo accompanying the initial report on the Facebook page was taken from another source. The Ombudsman thus call on all outlets to refrain from publishing explicitly fake news.