The Azerbaijani armed forces are able to keep the Kapan-Chakaten alternative road under surveillance, too. The only way to restore the safety and rights of the inhabitants is to remove them. The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, wrote about this on Facebook on Tuesday.

“The alternative road from Kapan to 6 villages—Chakaten, Shikahogh, Srashen, Nerkin Hand, Tsav, Shishkert—is also being monitored by the Azerbaijani armed forces. Therefore, in addition to being difficult to pass and the resulting humanitarian problems, violations of the rights of residents, the issue of guaranteeing the right to life and safety of people will remain unresolved.

Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the source of the violation—the real cause of the problems.

Yesterday and today we studied the monitored parts of the alternative road currently in operation (not all the parts monitored are in the attached photos). We did studies with the head of Kapan community Gevorg Parsyan and his staff.

Residents of the villages also testified that when they had to use this alternative road in the [19]90s, due to the monitoring of the Azerbaijani armed forces, there were cases of targeting—with firearms, including sniper fire—civilian houses and people.

The facts clearly prove that the state sponsorship and encouragement of Armenophobia by the Azerbaijani authorities has only deepened during these years and has taken on new, extreme manifestations, reaching fascism. And during the last war, it was manifested by atrocities and other gross human rights violations. Therefore, the recurrence of such cases is not ruled out.

The most important thing is not resolved: the people’s right to life, safety, and the right to free movement, other vital rights are not guaranteed.

That is, the road being used as an alternative does not objectively resolve the issue of eliminating the mass violations of rights caused by the illegal actions of the Azerbaijani authorities, their armed servicemen (for example, safety, restoration of normal life, etc.).

Therefore, the necessary solution is one: Azerbaijani armed or other servicemen should not be in the neighborhood of our communities or on the roads between the communities, a demilitarized security zone should be created.

That is the way to restore the rights of the RA people. This stems entirely from international track-record and standards.

No one has the right to ignore human rights and humanitarian issues in connection with the process of deciding the borders, period!

I will submit the special reports of the Human Rights Defender on this to the relevant international structures, as well as to the RA bodies and NGOs," Tatoyan added, in particular.