“On October 20, a shootout took place near Kovsakan. Some of the Armenian soldiers were killed and others forcibly disappeared. Azerbaijani border guards committed atrocities not only against the living, but also against the bodies of those killed,” the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan told reporters on September 8 regarding the events in Kovsakan during the 2020 war where Armenian soldiers were brutally tortured and killed.
Tatoyan noted, “In specific cases, they cut the ears off of murdered Armenian soldiers. The people who did this were soldiers of the border guard service of Azerbaijan, and the incident took place in Kovsakan. We have made some identifications from the rapid response group of that service. We showed in the photos that the Armenian soldiers were tied to cars and dragged. We have identified a Turkish-made car belonging to the Azerbaijani border guard service. We have analyzed in detail the bodily injuries and clothes of the killed Armenian soldiers.
The soldiers of the border guard service who entered the school named after Tatul Krpeyan in Kovsakan and the Azerbaijani soldiers who tortured the Armenian soldiers had the same rifles.” According to Arman Tatoyan, “These are the soldiers who are now present on the roads of Syunik and located near the communities. On November 7, Azerbaijani soldiers danced in the mentioned school. We identified the soldiers in that video and compared them with the perpetrators of Kovsakan’s murders. In case of a proper investigation, it is definitely possible to identify who those Azerbaijani soldiers were who danced and rejoiced at the school after the mass killings.”
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The Human Rights Defender emphasized that the perpetrators of these crimes were the soldiers of the Azerbaijani Border Guard Service who are stationed on the community roads of Syunik and who had recently closed the interstate road. “Their presence is already disrupting peace and security. Unless the perpetrators are brought to justice, the threat of new crimes is immense.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
