YEREVAN. – The border delimitation process must answer two main questions: Will it be a cause of human rights violations—not only for the border regions, but also for the whole people? And will the security and inviolability of the borders be violated? The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, stated this at Tuesday’s press conference.

He had paid several monitoring visits to Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces, and today he presented his conclusions on the situation.

Tatoyan noted that in the case of Syunik and Gegharkunik, the aforesaid violations are obvious, his monitoring has revealed the problematic issues, now the Armenia-Azerbaijan border is being determined with the help of GPS and Google Maps, and this creates numerous problems

As per the Armenian ombudsman, mechanical approach, in which 21 km of the 68km road connecting Goris and Kapan cities has come under the control of Azerbaijan, and this creates the likelihood of provocations by Azerbaijan. "The physical and spiritual inviolability of people is under threat. Property rights are grossly violated," Tatoyan added in particular.

But he noted the selfless service of the Armenian military and border guards, and the important mission of the Russian peacekeepers. "However, there are issues that have not been resolved and can cause long-term problems. (…). These issues need to be addressed immediately, as they relate to human rights," the ombudsman said.

 At the same time, he stressed that the anti-Armenian propaganda has deepened in Azerbaijan. "Security issues need to be addressed in that context," he added in particular.

The Armenian ombudsman said that there was a problem also because the old maps were based on the priority of agriculture, and as a result of the mechanical approach today, many Armenian individuals and communities have been deprived of hundreds of hectares of land.

Tatoyan added that the situation is the same in the case of investors who have invested in facilities that are now on the Azerbaijani side. The ombudsman expressed the opinion that the Azerbaijani side is obliged to compensate this damage as the initiator of the recent Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war and ethnic cleansing, and international courts need to be petitioned to in this regard.

"The law on administrative-territorial division should not be linked to borders. The issue of defining the external borders is a completely different issue—even if the law mentions the borders with Azerbaijan," he said.

And concluding his remarks on the provocations by the Azerbaijani military, Arman Tatoyan stressed that the armed military should not be next to civilians.