STEPANAKERT. - The Human Rights Defender of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) Ruben Melikyan issued a statement, urging the international human rights organizations to give relevant assessment to the 10-hour detention of 8-year-old Russian citizen of Armenian descent, Luka Vardanyan, in Baku for the latter’s Armenian origin.

“On May 30, 2016, the media outlets published a number of articles on the 10-hour detention of Russian citizen Luka Vardanyan, 8.  He had arrived at Baku airport together with his mother, Kristina Konstantinovna and her husband, who are also Russian citizens. The only reason for detaining the child was his surname, due to which the Azerbaijani authorities “suspected” him of being an Armenian.

This unacceptable incident is a manifestation of Azerbaijan’s state-level Armenophobia. That policy is described in detail in the interim public report published by the Artsakh Ombudsman on 21 April 2016.

I urge the human rights organizations, especially those dealing with children’s rights, to give relevant assessment to this incident and generally the policy of Armenophobia. This policy is the direct cause of the horrible violence carried out against the Republic of Artsakh by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in early April 2016.

The relevant condemnation of this incident by the international community can prevent the dissemination of hate propaganda and incitement of violence against Armenians, and consequently gross violations of human rights in the region,” the statement reads.