A Grenade Was in One of the Boys' Hands, He Pulled the Pin and Said He Would Blow Himself Up with Them: Details of the Border Incident

In the Syunik region, a grenade found in the hands of one of the boys saved them from being abducted after they wandered into Azerbaijani territory. This was reported to NEWS.am by Nerses Shadunts, the head of the Tekh consolidated community.

“There were young boys on tractors, along with the landowner. They had gone there with the tractors to harvest hay, and they accidentally crossed about 500 meters into the other side while working. They were born in the 90s. They have been cultivating that land since their birth. They crossed the border, and enemy units approached, wanting to take them deeper into their territory. They were unsuccessful; one of the boys had a grenade, pulled the pin, and said he would blow himself up along with them. He held onto that grenade until we arrived. We immediately contacted the command of the Russian peacekeeping forces and our border troops, as well as the commander of the 1st Army Corps. I also informed our regional governor. The Russians mixed in with us, and we were on one side, resulting in negotiations that led to the complete withdrawal of the equipment, which we brought back.

Young people from the village flooded the area, and I barely managed to keep those boys from escalating the situation; otherwise, they would have unleashed a wave of aggression. I told them that there might be success here, but something would definitely happen from another direction. Thanks to operational cooperation with the Russians, we brought back our equipment on the condition that we would no longer enter that area. Everything is normal now, and the situation is calm,” he explained.

According to the community leader, arming the residents of border communities is necessary. “Some residents already have weapons. In other words, we have provided arms to some community leaders for combat duty. But having more wouldn’t hurt.”

Earlier, it was reported that on June 12, another incident occurred along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the border area of Tekh community in Syunik region. During agricultural work, two tractor drivers from the community, due to poor orientation in the area, crossed into enemy-controlled territory. The enemy attempted to abduct them, but thanks to the intervention of local Armenian border guards and Russian peacekeepers, the boys were not abducted.