Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan has posted the following on his Facebook page:

“The internationally guaranteed right of the residents of Meghri community of Syunik Province of Armenia continues to be seriously violated through the deliberate acts of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.

The residents of Meghri community have sounded alarms according to which soldiers of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces had changed the flow of water from a tributary of “Meghri” river towards Nakhchivan (Ordubad region). As a result, it turns out that serious problems with accessibility of drinking water and irrigation water are emerging in the cities of Meghri and Agarak, as well as Nrnadzor, Shvanidzor and Alvank villages of Syunik Province. In these settlements, the population of Meghri community is the majority.

The residents and the head of Meghri community have informed the Human Rights Defender that Azerbaijani soldiers are creating barriers through special engineering machinery every month and changing the flow of the tributary towards Nakhchivan. Basically, as a result of these deliberate actions of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, serious issues are emerging for the residents of the Meghri and Agarak cities and the Nrnadzor, Shvanidzor and Alvank villages starting from August each year in terms of accessibility of drinking and irrigation water.

With these acts, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, and the authorities, are grossly violating the right of the residents of Meghri community of Armenia to water that is guaranteed by absolute international bans. The right to water is internationally guaranteed and includes the human right to have sufficient and continuing drinking water and water for domestic purposes (irrigation, hygiene, etc.).

The described actions of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan are a gross violation of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes adopted on March 17, 1992 in Helsinki and other international documents.

The Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia is currently summing up the analyses and evaluations of the serious and ongoing violations by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces of the absolutely and internationally guaranteed right of the residents of Armenia to drinking water and irrigation water, and these analyses and evaluations will be sent to international organizations and first and foremost specialized organizations, as well as to the competent authorities of Armenia.”