VIDEO: What is Happening in the Goris-Kapan Section After Azerbaijani Customs or Border Control? Ombudsman's Video Released

The so-called Azerbaijani customs or border control on the Goris-Kapan road has no legal basis, stated Armenia's Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan.

“After the Armenian Human Rights Defender published facts proving that the Azerbaijani so-called border and customs control on the Goris-Kapan road is illegal, and that human rights violations and severe humanitarian issues have arisen in Syunik as a result, some media outlets made artificially provoking statements yesterday, claiming that the Human Rights Defender's facts regarding significant difficulties in connectivity between the villages of Vardavan, Shurnukh, and Vorotan do not correspond to reality,” he said.

“Therefore, in order to protect our international partners from misleading information and to prevent these misleading provocations, I am publishing just a portion of one of the objective evidences directly obtained by the Human Rights Defender's staff—a short video (of a section of the road leading to the aforementioned villages from the Khot settlement). This video shows how the free movement of the population of Armenia, especially the residents of these villages, has become difficult along this part of the road, and people are facing humanitarian issues, including isolation from several localities from the outside world. The normal life of these people has been disrupted, and there are threats to their right to life and security caused by Azerbaijani armed personnel,” added the Ombudsman.

“Thus, this publication (the video evidence) once again confirms that the so-called Azerbaijani customs or border control on the Goris-Kapan road has no legal basis. The placements of their personnel on the roads between the communities of Syunik grossly violate international human rights requirements. They must be removed immediately,” the statement emphasized.

“P.S. Local authorities, as well as the Border Guard units, are making significant efforts to assist people on the ground, as we have specifically announced, but the purposeful significance of the Ombudsman's various statements is entirely different,” the Human Rights Defender's announcement concluded.