Yesterday,
the Azerbaijani military servicemen threatened residents of the Syunik Province
Tegh village with firearms in the sovereign territory of Armenia, and did not
allow them to gather the harvested grass.
In
particular, on June 26 2021, several residents of Tegh village went to their
property lands to collect the grass they had harvested on June 23 and 24.
When
they were about 300 meters away from the Azerbaijani position in the
administrative territory of Tegh community, they noticed that 5 Azerbaijani
armed servicemen were approaching them shouting aggressively.
Approaching
about 150 meters, they directed their weapons to the villagers, started
threatening, shouting and not allowing them to collect the grass. Two of them
behaved more aggressively and demanded from the villagers not to come to those
areas at all or try to use the lands.
The
incident took place in a place called Andrun Stones, which is located at the
intersection of Tegh, Aravus and Khnatsakh villages of Syunik province. The
lands of that place are used by the residents of the three villages. There are
both privately owned and community-owned lands. There are pastures used by the
residents of these three villages to graze their cattle.
The
villagers were able to collect the grass only today, on June 27, when the
commanders of the 1st Army Corps of the RA Armed Forces, the heads of the local
self-government bodies went to that place.
This
information has been submitted to the Human Rights Defender by the villagers,
including the villagers who went to collect the grass, as well as the head of
the Tegh administrative community. All the information has been checked by the
Defender’s Office.
This
criminal act of the Azerbaijani servicemen against the citizens of the Armenia
took place in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.
It is
obvious that such obvious criminal acts of the Azerbaijani servicemen are aimed
at depriving the citizens of the Republic of Armenia of other vital rights to
life, to be engaged in cattle breeding, to earn a family income. All this
should be viewed on an ongoing basis, as they regularly commit similar acts
(threats to shepherds, theft of animals, etc.) against residents of villages of
both Gegharkunik and Syunik Provinces.
This
incident once again proves that protection of Armenia’s population from
criminal actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces urgently require creation of a
security zone.
Arman
Tatoyan
The
Human Rights Defender of Armenia
Հայերեն
