Ombudsman 'concerned' over Azerbaijani signboards close to Armenian border villages

Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan has voiced his concern over the presence of Azerbaijani signboards in the vicinity of several south-eastern Armenian border towns and  villages .

In a public post on Facebook, the human rights defender said that signs featuring the Azerbaijani flag in the middle of a roadway connecting the village Vorotan with the town of Goris (Syunik region) provoked a  "deep anxiety" among the residents of nearby civilian settlements.  

The inhabitants of those areas contacted the Human Rights Defenders Office to voice alarm over imminent threats to their life, physical safety and immunity, ownership and other rights of vital importance. The stated facts were presented as a gross violation of the civilians' rights.

"The staff of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia immediately undertook detailed studies. Both the observations by the Syunik regional and central subdivisions of the Ombudsman's staff and the emergency calls by the local community agencies and residents were analyzed. It was found out that Azerbaijani servicemen had installed a sign reading 'Welcome to Azerbaijan!'  The map featured on the board was evidently drawn in such a way that an essential part of Armenia and a number of settlements in our country are presented as part of Azerbaijan. In this case, it was apparently done in an attempt to develop such a perception.

"The signboard was installed on a roadway connecting one civilian settlement of Armenia with another.

"The results of the study evidently affirm that the Azerbaijani servicemen made the kind of step in violation of the rights of the residents of those border settlements of Armenia and in an apparent effort to intimidate the latter (children and women in the first place).

"This is a totally condemnable step with a blatant intent to intimidate civilians - given first of all the tortures, the inhuman and degrading treatment and other crimes of war and the ethnic purges committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces against our people during and after the September-November 2020 war.

"Such steps are especially condemnable against the backdrop of the Azerbaijani state polices of an organized Armenocide and Armenophobia, as well as the blatant anti-Armenian calls by those Azerbaijanis who enjoy popularity in that country and have proclaimed themselves as human rights advocates (the staff of the human rights defender of Armenia has fixed the necessary evidence)," Tatoyann wrote.

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