Azerbaijanis Send Threats to Arman Tatoyan, Human Rights Defender

Azerbaijani media have recently launched organized attacks against Armenia's Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, which also involve members of parliament. The attacks are accompanied by declarations to initiate processes for the dismissal of Tatoyan from his position, as well as extreme verbal insults, threats, and hatred directed at him.

Additionally, threats are being sent to the Human Rights Defender through personal correspondence. These attacks are related to the Defender's statements regarding human rights violations in the process of determining Armenia’s borders, the presence of Azerbaijani soldiers (with flags and signs) in the Syunik region of Armenia, and Azerbaijani provocations against civilian residents.

Moreover, the statements made by the Human Rights Defender are overtly distorted, and thereafter subjected to manipulative interpretation. For instance, the Human Rights Defender speaks about the unacceptability of the presence of Azerbaijani armed personnel, flags, and signs in Syunik but Azerbaijani outlets present this as 'hysteria,' framing it in their words as 'so-called in Syunik.'

In another instance, statements by the Defender concerning Kapan Airport are misrepresented alongside comments from the Kapan mayor as 'provocation of a scandal' and 'air hysteria of Armenian revanchists,' indicating that the airport should even be used by Azerbaijani military aviation and again threatening with the so-called 'iron fist' of war.

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia unequivocally condemns these manipulative attacks by Azerbaijani media, which are conducted with the involvement of political figures, utilizing personal correspondence, and distorting the Defender's actual statements, inciting new enmity and enmification. These are fraught with new violations of human rights.