A video is circulating around Azeri social media showing a group of Azeris gathered in the Tartar region along the Artsakh border who supposedly intend to cross the Artsakh border carrying posters saying, “Karabakh is Azerbaijan.”
Expert on Azeri affairs from the Orbeli Analytical Research Center Taron Hovhannisyan told Aravot Daily in an interview that these videos were posted on October 15th and 16th.
https://www.facebook.com/maestronws/videos/452405632063582/
“The Tartar region’s leadership announced on October 15th that they were the ones who supported the organization of this flashmob. According to them, the young people had this intention. The youth of the Tartar region, which borders Artsakh’s Martakert region, decided to carry out a flashmob that supported a recent statement made by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, in which he said ‘Karabakh is Azerbaijan.’”
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According to Hovhannisyan, the youth decided to march towards the Maragha village of Artsakh, which has been under Azeri occupation since 1992. This village is along the current official border of Artsakh and the Talish village. The Armenian positions are visible from here. “In reality, when we watch these videos, it’s clear that school and university students were the ones mainly involved in this. Political leaders most likely mobilized these students. They wanted to show how much people support Aliyev’s ideas.”
Taron Hovhannisyan noted, “A similar flashmob took place elsewhere, but soldiers were the ones who participated. When we watch these videos from Tartar, it seems like they gathered and made these posters, but then they went back. They marched towards the Maragha village, but did not enter it. So, they gathered near the border between Tartar and Maragha. This was presented online as a “march to the border,” but we cannot exclude the possibility of such a provocation. They did not do it this time, but it’s possible for them to organize something and come closer to the border. We need to note that they took children out of school to prove something, which put the lives of these children in danger. If something were to happen, there would have been an uproar. Nothing happened this time, but we can’t exclude the possibility of them trying to do something like this again. In any case, these types of actions show that even local authorities in Azerbaijan are carrying out provocative operations.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
