Azerbaijani Border Guards Threaten, Shout at, and Pull a Resident of Tegh Village: Human Rights Defender

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, posted on his Facebook page: “On July 19, 2021, Azerbaijani military personnel violated the rights of residents of Tegh village in the Syunik province of Armenia through criminal actions. In particular, based on complaints and alerts, the fact-finding work of the Human Rights Defender clarified the following:

First, it was established that one of the residents of Tegh village was conducting agricultural work on July 19, 2021, around 10:00-10:30 AM on land belonging to him and his family legally and with ownership rights. He was specifically harvesting grain with a combine harvester. The mentioned land is located in close proximity to the positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces. Despite this, for the completeness of the work, the combine operator had to also harvest the grain from the edge sections of the plot.

When the operator completed his work in one of the edge sections and moved approximately 150 meters away towards deeper Armenian territory, he noticed several Azerbaijani armed soldiers approaching him. Upon approaching, the Azerbaijani soldiers threatened the Tegh village resident with weapons, yelled, and pulled him, trying to force him and the combine back towards their positions.

The fact-finding efforts confirm that the Azerbaijani armed forces unlawfully deprived the resident of Tegh village and the combine operator of their freedom while harvesting grain on land belonging to him under ownership rights, and obstructed agricultural activities for an extended period. The combine operator immediately alerted the head of the Tegh community. Following this, thanks to the efforts of the community head, the command of the Armenian Armed Forces, and local Russian border guard units, the combine and the operator were returned to the Armenian side around 4:30 PM on July 19.

The Human Rights Defender will provide objective evidence regarding the described incident to relevant bodies, including international intergovernmental organizations. The fact-finding work has also revealed that in addition to the aforementioned incident, the Azerbaijani armed forces fired shots near the villages of Khnatsakh and Aravus of the Tegh community from July 19 to the night of July 20, disrupting the tranquility and peaceful life of the residents. The firing only ceased due to preventive gunfire from the Armenian Armed Forces protecting civilians.

All this information has been confirmed by testimonies from the head of the enlarged community of Tegh, residents’ accounts, media publications, as well as the official statement from the Ministry of Defense of Armenia regarding the July 19 incident.

The Human Rights Defender specially notes that the mentioned actions committed by Azerbaijani armed forces personnel, which grossly violate the rights of Armenian civilians, should be viewed as a unified intention. This is also confirmed by the context of shots being continuously fired by Azerbaijani armed forces in other border areas of Armenia near civilian settlements, deliberately disrupting the peaceful lives of the border residents and violating their rights (to life and health, property, mental inviolability, and other vital rights).”