Temporary Border Drawn with Tractor in Tegh Community After 6 Hours of Negotiations

On the morning of the previous day, while harvesting wheat, a harvester from Tegh village crossed about 10 meters into Azerbaijani territory. The Azerbaijani side demanded that the young worker cross to their side to draft a statement. To resolve the issue, approximately 6 hours of negotiations took place.

This was reported by Pastinfo. “The harvester went into our administrative area while reaping in our field. While turning, it entered their territory by 10 meters. Because of this 10 meters, they came down and halted our harvester within our territory, saying we had violated the border,” Tegh community leader Nerses Shadunts told Pastinfo.

Shadunts noted that the incident occurred around 10-11 in the morning. He informed the commander of the army corps and the border troops, as well as the commander of the peacekeeping forces. Together, they headed to the site. The Azerbaijanis tried to convince the young harvester that he needed to cross the border to register the incident on Azerbaijani territory. However, he refused to comply.

“They tried to convince the harvester to move the tractor into their territory to draft a statement claiming that there had been a violation of the territory, but the harvester was not foolish enough to drive over there. He quickly called us, and we arrived promptly. They were on our territory. I told them, why did you enter our territory, what are you doing here? They said the harvester had crossed the border,” Shadunts explained.

Shadunts noted that the negotiations took a long time, but fortunately, a serious incident was not recorded. The harvester is a young man who does not fear anything. He did not go into the field alone while harvesting the wheat.

The community leader also added that there was no one among the Azerbaijanis who could speak Russian, so they made contact with the administrative head of Aravus, who speaks Azerbaijani well. Hovsepyan explained that there was no intent to violate the border.

“Hovsepyan explained, but he was a bit of a fool and did not understand. There are people who understand when you speak to them, but some just don’t get it at all,” Shadunts said.

The real reason for the prolonged negotiations lies elsewhere. About 20 days ago, the Azerbaijani side had started a fire from their side of the valley. Smoke was spotted from Tegh, and under Shadunts’ directive, they dug a trench all along the way to the Azerbaijani post to prevent the fire from spreading.

“That was mainly the reason for the dispute. They realized that we were drawing the border. They outlined from the border into their section so that the fire would not reach us. No matter how much we explain that we are creating a firebreak zone, they still don’t understand,” he added.

Negotiations continued in the presence of Azerbaijani commanders. According to the community mayor, a visible line representing the border has now been drawn in that area. “Negotiations took place around 5 PM. Everything has been smoothed out, and we have brought agricultural machinery to create a delineated line so that we do not cross into their territory again. There are no peaceful civilians from their side, so it's a bit easier for them; while for us, we are dealing with livestock and farming. We have undertaken trilateral work for a temporary demarcation. The tractor has gone through the fields to mark this as a boundary so that we do not violate it. Whatever we can do, it must ultimately be finalized,” Shadunts stated.

Shadunts is confident that such incidents will continue to occur. It will stop only when there are buffers such as barbed wires in place.

“We are filming a movie all day; we are in theaters,” Shadunts remarked.