RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook page,
“It is obvious to me that the closure of the Goris-Kapan road in Syunik is an open crime planned in advance by the Azerbaijani authorities against the entire civilian population of Armenia. Their crime was committed by their armed servicemen simply on the basis of a provocation they invented.
For the second day in a row, the Azerbaijani armed forces have been blocking the Armenian interstate road from Goris to Kapan.
As a result, villages from other settlements were almost completely cut off: Vorotan, Shurnukh, Bardzravan villages of Goris, and a district of Nor Arajadzor village of Kapan.
There have been severe restrictions on access to food and basic necessities and medical services in these villages, putting people at real risk of a humanitarian crisis.
Due to the obvious criminal acts of the Azerbaijani armed forces, the free movement of the civilian population (including children, women, and the elderly) in those villages has been severely restricted.
As a result, the Tatev-Kapan road in Syunik was seriously overloaded.
These actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces have caused massive human rights violations in Armenia: the free movement of people, access to medical services, disrupted the normal life of the civilian population, and other internationally guaranteed vital rights.
In addition, the movement of trucks carrying goods from Iran to Armenia and vice versa has been severely restricted. In other words, free movement on the Armenia-Iran road was paralyzed.
The fact-finding work under my direct leadership yesterday and today, the analysis of the alarms and the situation clearly show that the two sections of the Goris-Kapan road were closed by the order of the highest Azerbaijani authorities.
They are directly responsible for these criminal acts, which have completely disrupted the security, peace and tranquility of the people, and caused tension in the whole society.
These actions consistently confirm my more and more well-founded assertions that the very presence of Azerbaijani servicemen near the villages of Armenia and on the roads in Syunik violates the right to life, free movement, property right, normal life and other vital rights.
Our state should act on the principle of “every minute counts” and use target international mechanisms.
The central and Syunik regional subdivisions of my staff were in contact with the residents and local self-government bodies throughout the day. Yesterday and today, the RA NSS border troops played an irreplaceable role in ensuring the security of the RA civilian population.
We regularly send reports on the real situation, the objective results of fact-finding work to international bodies, including the officials of those bodies, such as the UN, the Council of Europe, the EU, the OSCE, etc.
“It should be shown ro the international community that the reckless actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces completely undermine the system of international law, and is a clear disrespect to all the rules they have adopted.”
