ArmenPress
May 5 2004
RENEGADE ARMENIANS COMPLAIN OF UNHCR NEGLIGENCE
BAKU, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS: Two former ethnic-Armenian residents of
Baku, Arthur Apresian, 48 and Roman Teryan, 38, who had fled
Azerbaijan’s capital in late 1980-s amid massive anti-Armenian
pogroms, and who first appeared in mid-April of this year in the
office of Azerbaijan’s ANS TV company to say they fled Armenia to
protect their honors are still kept at Azerbaijan’s national security
premises. A Baku-based daily 525 Gazet writes that there are no other
place to ensure their safety, while international organizations do
not respond to their pleas to send them to a third country.
According to the daily, representatives of these organizations
have had several meetings with “refugees,” but did not offer
transportation to a third country. The Armenians were said to express
their dissatisfaction with UNHCR representative in Baku threatening
to start a hunger strike.
The daily says the two Armenians intend to present “the truth
about Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh conflict” to the international
community.
According to Azeri sources, the two Armenians had earlier
attempted to leave Armenia for a European country through Turkey and
Georgia, But their attempts failed. While in Turkey in 2002, the two
Armenians asked the French embassy in Ankara for asylum, but were
rejected. They also unsuccessfully attempted to cross the
Turkish-Greece border.