Azerbaijani armed forces keep opening fire in the direct neighborhood of peaceful communities of Armenia’s Syunik province, Armenia’s Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said at a press conference today.
“The recent inquiries by the staff of the Human Rights Defender’s Office show that recently Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire in the neighborhood of the communities of Nerkin Hand, Agarak, Yeghvard and others,” Tatoyan stressed.
Total unlawfulness took place in Armenia with Ara Saghatelyan spending 14 days in custody simply due to some caprices of some people, attorney Mihran Poghosyan told the reporters in court yard today.
“I do not view this as victory, I view this as beginning of fight, because the person who has not committed any wrongdoing was taken from his environment and completely illegally kept in custody,” he said.
He said they will record victory only in case when all people connected with this case including president of court, other person giving orders will appear in jail.
The attorney said the Criminal Court of Appeal recorded the absence of substantiated suspicion in charges against Saghatelyan.
Parents of the captured soldiers from Armenia’s Shirak Province on Friday blocked the entrance to the Shirak Regional Administration, Armenpress reports.
The parents did not allow any employee to enter the building. They also refused to answer reporters’ questions, noting at the moment they have nothing to say that can be made public, the news outlet said.
Parents held a similar protest on March 3, demanding a new meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and a final and clear answer about when their sons will return from Azerbaijani captivity. However, they did not block the entrance to the building at the time.
The servicemen were captured by the Azerbaijani forces in Artsakh’s Khtsaberd village on December 16, 2020, the source said.
Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan on Friday stressed the need for the creation of a demilitarized zone in Syunik Province to guarantee the rights of its residents.
Presenting the new concept on the border-related process in the country’s regions at a news conference, the ombudsman said the comprehensive research carried out by his team and the obtained evidence confirm its necessity.
The ombudsman highlighted that the Azerbaijani troops continue opening gunfire in the immediate vicinity of several Armenian border villages, presenting some evidence of the shootings.
Tatoyan stressed that the border determination process must be based on the most important principles – the rule of law, democracy and human rights.
“Human rights must be at the core of all border processes. This is not an alternative requirement, but a mandatory one. Moreover, human rights are such a basis that if not ensured, the legitimacy of the whole process will fail at once,” he said.
The ombudsman called for respect for the dignity of border residents, protection of their rights, peace and security in the process of determining the country’s borders.
“Naturally, all this must be ensured through specialized commission work, which must be carried out though the prior involvement of specialists, including engineers, land developers and historians, as well as through mandatory cooperation with local residents,” he said.
Arman Tatoyan next pointed out the problems in Gegharkunik and Syunik Provinces, highlighting gross violations of human dignity and the existing threats to the civilians’ lives.
“The school in the village of Nerkin Hand in Syunik is only 500 meters away from the positions of the Azerbaijani military and shots are fired there. Can any international organization tell me if this is in the best interests of the children?” the ombudsman said.
Also, he warned of gross violations of property rights, stating that some residents of border villages possessing certificates of ownership are not able to use their lands because they are so-called “Azerbaijani territories”.
“There are land lots and houses coming under direct target of Azerbaijan, preventing the people from using them amid the continuing shootings,” he said.
In Tatoyan’s words, the new concept calls for the creation of a demilitarized security zone with a distance of at least 5-7 kilometers in Syunik.
“These are evidence-based measures, based mainly on the types of weapons employed by the Azerbaijani forces near Armenian villages,” the ombudsman said.
He stressed that the international community has a lot to do here, as all this contradicts international human rights instruments.
Tatoyan said that they cooperate with the Foreign Ministry of Armenia and ambassadors. He also noted that they have received responses from leading international organizations, but did not disclose their names, citing agreements reached with them.
“I am just happy that the issues raised are being addressed. We substantiate our claims with concrete evidence. I do not give any subjective assessment at all, they are only evidence, information, facts. Based on all this, we have come to a consultation that there must be a demilitarized zone, as we are dealing with the military of a country the strategic, political goals of which announced by its supreme commander are of ethnic cleansing and genocidal nature,” Tatoyan said.
A special online discussion on Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) being held in Azerbaijan was organized in the German Bundestag on Thursday, during which Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan presented a separate report.
The discussion took place under the chairmanship of Michael Brand, Chairman of the Bundestag Standing Committee on Human Rights, and Marian Wendt, Chair of the Bundestag Petition Committee. More than 70 German deputies took part in the discussion, the ombudsman said in a statement on Facebook.
The defender highlighted the urgency of the return of Armenian prisoners of war – servicemen and civilians – from Azerbaijani captivity. Arman Tatoyan noted that the Azerbaijani authorities are artificially delaying and politicizing the process so as to cause mental suffering to the Armenian society and especially to the families of the captives and create tensions in the country.
“The human rights defender of Armenia presented in detail the international humanitarian and human rights rules which require the immediate release of prisoners and their safe return. The ombudsman emphasized the gross violations of international humanitarian law and the rights of prisoners who are wrongly portrayed as “terrorists” given the circumstances of ongoing armed conflict,” the statement said.
The ombudsman also provided information on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces during the war (beheadings, torture, humiliation of bodies, etc).
Arman Tatoyan thanked the German lawmakers for the discussion.
“The ombudsman considers the assistance of the Armenian Embassy in Germany in organizing this discussion to be of utmost importance.
“It should be noted that the evidence on the Azerbaijani atrocities and torture collected by the human rights defender of Armenia was passed on by Armenian Ambassador to Germany Ashot Smbatyan to Amnesty International in Germany,” the statement added.
A reception center for citizens continues to operate in Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, where a “hotline” has been launched to collect information about the participants of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh who have gone missing.
Their search is carried out by the Russian peacekeeping contingent in cooperation with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides. All requests are recorded, entered in the database and sent to the joint search groups, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
In total, more than 2,500 people have turned to the reception center for help, including 600 by calling the “hotline”.
Search and rescue teams of Artsakh’s State Service of Emergency Situations found no casualties of the 2020 war or missing soldiers during their operations in former combat zones in southern regions on Thursday.
However, according to preliminary data, the remains of two fallen servicemen were handed over to the service at the assembly point of a military unit in Martakert region. The bodies are yet to be identified through a forensic DNA analysis, the State Service of Emergency Situations said.
Two days ago, the body of another soldier was transferred from the same place.
During the recent war, the area came under Azerbaijani missile attack.
The search continues in Hadrut and Varanda (Fizuli) regions today.
Since the start of the ceasefire, a total of 1,488 bodies of fallen troops and civilians have been found during the search operations.
Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Andranik Makaryan on Friday refused to comment on the statement of the military’s top brass, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the cabinet.
Incidentally, Andranik Makaryan did not sign the statement.
Asked why he refused to join the statement and whether he does not share the concerns of his colleagues, he said at the Yerablur Military Pantheon: “I would not like to make any comments.”
At the same time, the senior officer told reporters: “All servicemen of the Armenian army stand with it.”
Makaryan also refused to answer another question whether the statement of the General Staff is a “coup attempt”. “I can’t say anything, let me refrain from comments,” he said.
Azerbaijani vandals demolished a monument to Ivan Tevosyan, a hero of Socialist Labor and a prominent political figure of the Soviet era, in occupied Shushi town of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), regional analyst and researcher Yeghia Tashjian said in a tweet, sharing a video.
Ivan Tevosyan was a native of Shushi born on January 4, 1902. He held senior posts in the Soviet Union, serving as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet from 1937-1958.
Tevosyan died in 1958 and was buried in the cemetery near the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, where many prominent state and military figures of the Soviet Union were laid to rest.
In occupied Shushi #NagornoKarabakh, #Azerbaijani vandals demolished a monument to Ivan Tevosyan, a hero of Socialist Labor and a prominent political figure of the Soviet era. #Tevosyan was a native of #Shushi.
— Yeghia Tashjian #FreeArmenianPOWs (@yeghig) March 4, 2021
https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2021/03/05/Ivan-Tevosyan-Shushi-Azeri-vandals/2463729
‘Vernatun’ public-political club has issued a statement of Armenia’s former NSS Chief Davit Shahnazaryan about the scenarios to settle the current political situation in Armenia.
“There are two ways to end the standoff between the Government of Armenia and the Armed Forces. Either the Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan or Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan should be arrested. There is no other option, and Colonel General Onik Gasparyan is the one to decide,” the comment by Shahnazaryan read.