Azerbaijanis Said to Come in One Hour, Those Here Will Be Taken Captive: Resident of Vorotan

The Deputy Mayor of Goris, Irina Yolyan, posted on her Facebook page yesterday, stating that the Deputy Mayor of Goris, Menuaa Hovsepian, is negotiating in Vorotan with the Russians to convince the enemy that a house located in their territory by GPS remains theirs. She said: 'Today, the Azerbaijanis have given the homeowners one hour to vacate the house. In fact, the Azerbaijanis claim that the residential house located in our territory by GPS is already theirs. The homeowners have left the house, but the Russians have promised that they will do everything to keep the house.'

In an interview with ArmDaily.am, Mrs. Manushak Petrosyan, the owner of the house, stated that their house documents have been translated into Russian. 'I sent the documents to the village, my husband is on the way, but they won’t let him enter the village; he is stuck at a crossroads waiting for them to come and take the documents from him. We'll see what the Russians decide, I don't know,' she explained.

Mrs. Manushak mentioned that there are many houses in that area, but she could not say how many are in the problematic area. 'They specifically came to tell us to leave. Right now, I am in Goris. They gave us one hour, what could I do if I stayed at home? The Azerbaijanis said they would take us captive when they come here in one hour. They arrived in the village with Urals and made such threats, and we managed to take out what we could in half an hour. What can we do now? We have translated our ownership documents into Russian to prove that the territory is ours and has been Armenian. The document shows that construction has occurred in that territory since 1958; it has been Armenian land. We bought that house only 10 years ago, but it belonged to someone else before us, and it was built in 1958.'