'Border with Azerbaijan being defined under threat of second war' – Armenian Ombudsman
Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan believes that “the process of defining the state borders of Armenia with Azerbaijan is taking place in the conditions of obvious threats of war from Azerbaijan, which are made against the entire population of Armenia.”
In addition, Arman Tatoyan declared the whole process illegitimate, as it is taking place with violations of human rights and international standards.
This is stated in letters with which he addressed the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Secretaries General of the Council of Europe and the UN, the Council of Europe and UN Commissioners for Human Rights, the PACE and OSCE PA Presidents, the ECHR President, PACE Co-Rapporteurs for Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“The President of Azerbaijan, like the President of Turkey, speaks of the entire Armenian people and the population of Armenia in the language of open threats of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The President of Azerbaijan, as well as Azerbaijani public figures, following his example, openly insult the dignity of the Armenian people, incite enmity on the basis of ethnicity (specific evidence is attached),” Tatoyan wrote on Facebook.
As a result, the Ombudsman writes, the process of defining the boundaries in specific settlements of the Syunik and Gegharkunik regions of Armenia has already led to gross violations of internationally recognized human rights and threatened people’s right to life, physical integrity, and property rights.
The issue of the security of Armenian border settlements became acute after the second Karabakh war.
Now a new border is being defined here – on the basis of the administrative division of the Soviet era.
“The security of the state borders of the Republic of Armenia is threatened. The process is accompanied by violations of the requirements of the rule of law and has no legitimacy. Therefore, it must be immediately suspended or subjected to fundamental revision.”
The letters of the human rights defender say that in the process of defining the boundaries, only mechanical approaches are used, which are completely unacceptable at the international level. It is about using the GPS and the map application of a private company Google:
“No internationally recognized standards are taken into account. There are no professional approaches at all, no commissions work, no preliminary inventory and assessment of people’s needs, there is no appropriate legal framework. “
The Ombudsman emphasizes that Azerbaijani soldiers, “that is, armed people”, are deployed in the immediate vicinity of the civilians of Armenia on interstate and intercommunal roads and even in the settlements themselves – by dividing sidewalks.
Each of the international organizations and partners, in accordance with their competence, the human rights defender sent separate letters with a detailed analysis and attached documents and other evidence.
Details of the situation in Syunik
As a result of the second Karabakh war, the Zangelan region of Karabakh, bordering on the Syunik region of Armenia, was transferred to Azerbaijan .
And the new border is drawn in such a way that the road between the cities of Goris and Kapan, Syunik region, crosses Azerbaijani territory in several places .
The protests in the region began from the moment when the mayor of Kapan, Gevorg Parsyan, announced the order of the Armenian Ministry of Defense until the evening of December 18 to vacate military posts near the city, located at “favorable heights”.
The opposition of Armenia proposed to create another Russian base on the territory of Armenia, which “will help ensure the security of the Syunik region and the region as a whole.”
In the north of Armenia in the city of Gyumri, 102 Russian military bases have already been deployed. In 2010, Russia and Armenia extended the agreement on the deployment of this base until 2044.
At the end of December, residents of Syunik blocked the roads and did not let Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan into the region. They believe that the Armenian authorities do not protect their safety.
In early January, Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan visited Syunik. As a result of his visit and research, he said that as a result of concessions to Azerbaijan after the second Karabakh war, Armenia lost more than 2,000 hectares of territories and about two dozen houses. And the Azerbaijani authorities, in his opinion, must compensate for the damage to the residents of the Syunik region of Armenia.
