YEREVAN. – Residents of Berdavan border village of Armenia’s Tavush Province once again closed the road on Sunday demanding that the government negotiates with the Azerbaijani side on the return of 34-year-old local Karen Ghazaryan who has been in captivity for four months.

Governor of Tavush province Vahe Ghalumyan tried to calm the protesters and explained that the government is doing everything to return Karen Ghazaryan.

“This is our only option, we do not see any others. We would wait, unless Azerbaijan announced the trial. They present my boy as a saboteur,” Karen’s mother said addressing the governor.

This is the second protest action in the village after on Saturday the villagers kept the road leading to Georgia closed for several hours.

Karen Ghazaryan (born in 1984), a resident of Berdavan village, had ended up in Azerbaijan for unknown reasons, and was captured on July 15.

Azerbaijan, however, had attempted to present this as “the prevention of a reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces on the border.” The incident allegedly had occurred in the direction of Azerbaijan’s Gazakh region. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry had said an Armenian serviceman was taken captive.

But the Armenian Defense Ministry formally declared that Ghazaryan was not serving and had never served in the Armed Forces of Armenia.

The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, on Friday announced that he had petitioned to the UN and the Council of Europe commissioners, in connection with having Ghazaryan returned to Armenia, and that relevant work was being done also in close cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross.