On this very day, 5 years ago, on 2 April, Azerbaijani armed forces committed unprecedented war crimes.
In the early morning of April 02, 2016, i.e. at the very beginning of the hostility in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), Vagharshak Grigoryan, a 12-year-old student of the Martuni region Nerkin Tshartar secondary school was killed as a result of targeted shelling of the school. Four other 11, 12 and 13-years old children were heavily wounded.
Within very few hours, Azerbaijani soldiers committed terrific brutalities. One of the vivid examples is the killing of an elderly couple, Valerik Khalapyan and Razmela Vardanyan and the complete destruction of their house in Tallish. They were shot in their home and were tortured, with their ears cut off.
Azerbaijani soldiers also murdered Valerik Khalapyan’s 92-year-old mother, Marousya Khalapyan. Azerbaijani soldiers, acting with motivation of hatred, destroyed everything in the Khalapyan family house.
Azerbaijani soldiers killed and beheaded a member of Artsakh Defense Army Kyaram Sloyan. After beheading the head was taken by the retreated Azerbaijani troops. Later, pictures of Azerbaijani soldiers holding Sloyan’s decapitated head surfaced in social networks (in particular: VKontakte). Soon thereafter, a video emerged in the internet, showing an Azerbaijani holding the severed head of Sloyan to the public. In the relevant screenshot, a serviceman in a uniform holding the head of Kyaram Sloyan is seen, taking photos with Sloyan’s head, holding by the ears, as well as a hand of a person, most probably without uniform, holding the head.
No matter by what name you refer to it, at the highest level in Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Armenian people, and the citizens of Armenia are considered enemies; and, a whole generation has grown up feeling hatred and enmity with state patronage. This is what the President of Azerbaijan is proud of.
These are just a few of cases among many cases of torture and cruelties committed by Azerbaijani soldiers.
The real situation (state of affairs) is that a genocidal policy is being pursued.
That is based on objective and concrete evidence.
Impunity breeds new and more serious crimes which we witnessed during the September-November 2020 war.
Photo Caption: A bust in memory of Kyaram Sloyan – Artashavan village school of Aragatsotn region
Nune Hovsepyan
