The men of Aravus village of Syunik Province of Armenia have addressed the relevant bodies to include them in the militia and allow them to control the sector of the border passing through the village along with border guards.

“The soldiers are standing on the border, but there will be better protection, if we join them. There are 13 Turkish military posts, and 30-40 people are standing at the posts,” head of Aravus village Argam Hovsepyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

After demarcation, Aravus village was deprived of grazing fields. The border is just 100 meters away from the last home in the village. Due to lack of grazing fields, the villagers have sold most of their cattle (75%). It was Aravus village in which an incident happened to a pastor a few days ago when Azerbaijanis threatened the pastor with weapons and tried to take him to their trench, after which they heard the voices of villagers, hit the pastor in the eye and escaped.

“Now we are standing there, they are grazing. We have asked the corps commander to order us to go and stand at a distance of 10 meters so that the Azerbaijanis can’t do anything,” Hovsepyan said.

According to the head of the village, he and the others have been promised that a commission will be set up for demarcation and delimitation, after which they hope that the lost grazing fields will be returned after demarcation.

“They [the Azerbaijanis] took 62 hectares of our fields through the GPS system. Those fields are our fields according to a certificate and maps. I ask every day and address the authorities. I addressed the regional governor’s office and talked to our corps commander, they said there will be a commission,” Hovsepyan said.

There are nearly 40 families in Aravus village, and more than half of them earn a living through cattle-raising.