There are 6 villages there, we have troops, and not a single person from the government or the regional administration has called or come. Mayor of Jakhkaten

About an hour ago, I returned from Jakhkaten where enemy heavy machinery was operating, and 10-15 armed individuals were monitoring the process. This was stated by Ara Harutyunyan, the mayor of Jakhkaten, in an interview with NEWS.am, regarding the announcement by the NSS about establishing an Azerbaijani checkpoint near their village from today.

“I reached Kapan, and within an hour, my fellow villagers had come down. In that area, they had already seen 100-120 military personnel, some of whom were masked. They have already set up barriers on both the right and left sides of the road leading to the village of Jakhkaten so that trucks and military vehicles can no longer pass through that section. Just 20 minutes ago, NSS officers greeted locals passing through that area and escorted their vehicles to Jakhkaten. This means that the same incident has repeated itself as in Vorotan, only worse, and the road is already closed for us. There are 6 villages there, we have troops, and not a single person from the governmental side or the regional administration has called or come. How long can I guarantee safety to our villagers? Today, 3-4 families said if the road is to be closed, at least inform us in advance so we can get the children out of here. I didn’t know how to respond to that question. It seems coincidental that the local elections ended and immediately the road was closed; how does that happen?” he stated.

The village head recounted that as of 14:00 yesterday, there was calm, but construction work began at 16:00. “In 24 hours, they built everything, closed it, washed their hands, and left. Meanwhile, we are still considering an alternative route. It is impossible to access via the forest road; you can’t even go up on foot. I don’t even know how I’m going to get to the village; we have children who need to go to school, and we are talking about education, well, educate them,” he added.

Earlier, the National Security Service of Armenia reported that on November 15 at 00:00 local time, the Azerbaijani side would deploy a checkpoint in the section of the Kapan-Jakhkaten road under Azerbaijani control for the purpose of carrying out border and customs control.