According to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, the provocations from Azerbaijan aimed at violating the rights of people living in the border communities of the Syunik Province, especially children, are problematic from a human rights perspective. “I especially want to mention that armed Azeri soldiers appear on the roads connecting the communities of the Syunik Province. These are the soldiers who killed and tortured our soldiers a few months ago. Sometimes, our professional or state bodies explain this by saying that they are border troops. That is understandable, but this issue must be viewed within the context of ethnic hate policies. This is the standard and not the circumstance- are they border troops or not?” Arman Tatoyan said during a meeting with journalists.
Regarding the Azeri flags and signs along the roads connecting the communities in the Syunik Province, Arman Tatoyan said that there were many questions raised about what that has to do with human rights. “It has a lot to do with human rights because Azerbaijan deploys its Armed Forces near the flags and signs so that they have an excuse to control the objects as if to protect them. All they needed was to come and ‘sacredly’ defend their signs. This is used for the movement of the armed forces. Residents even avoid going to the hospital in the evening because of the Azerbaijani military’s presence. Besides, what will happen in the sections of the road that allegedly belong to Azerbaijan if Armenian or Iranian cars get into an accident? Also, they ask that people travel quickly so that Azerbaijani soldiers don’t think that they are being provoked. All of this proves that there should be a demilitarized zone until these issues are settled.”
The Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan presented a concept on the establishment of a demilitarized security zone in Syunik, taking into account the problems in the demarcation process of Syunik after the war and the violations of the rights of the residents by the Azerbaijani military.
Luiza Sukiasyan
