The Government Should Publish the Draft Document Regarding Armenia's Border Delimitation: Human Rights Defender

The government must publish the draft document concerning Armenia's border delimitation, which was partially posted online yesterday, and the authenticity of which was confirmed at today's government meeting, Armenia's Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan wrote on Facebook.

"All provisions of the document that give an idea of what it is actually about should be published at the very least. The delimitation with Azerbaijan directly concerns all of us, every person living in Armenia, the fundamental rights of the entire Armenian people—rights to life and existence, national and personal dignity, mental peace, and physical security, the right to be informed, and many other rights. Delimitation itself is a guarantee of human rights, and its incorrect implementation could lead to new violations of rights and increased tension. The publication of the document is in the interests of the state. In this way, the state will prevent the leakage of such exceptionally important information from unofficial sources and will not allow a catastrophic loss of public trust in state bodies. Otherwise, it will again turn out that the information vacuum created by the state has been filled with information from unofficial sources, confusing even well-meaning people, while individual officials will again start accusing people of imaginary 'media terror' with their irresponsible posts, often filled with offensive language," Tatoyan wrote.

It is noteworthy that earlier Mikayel Minasyan published a segment from the new document that is expected to be signed by the Prime Minister of Armenia and the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia. According to the document published by Minasyan, "the handover of 5 villages in Tavush province and one village in Ararat province to Azerbaijan has been made a matter of discussion by Nikol. At today's cabinet meeting, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that if Azerbaijan fulfills the agreements, he will sign the document."