The issues of the rights of villagers, their peaceful and normal daily life must be of primary importance in the process of resolving border disputes, Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan said on Thursday.

“In the 1920s, for example, in the border areas of Soviet Armenia, one of the constant concerns of Armenian villagers was the attacks and looting by bandits from Azerbaijani territories (later Red Kurdistan), theft of animals, sale of lands to Armenian villagers by Azerbaijani landowners and thereafter illegally bringing claims of ownership to reclaim such lands.

“For example, in 1922, in the report addressed to the Central Executive Committee of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Zangezur Provincial Executive Committee, it states that "there can be no normal life” or “friendly relations” without resolving the issue of the land-administrative borders of Zangezur province with Ghubatlu. Several reports from the Zangezur Provincial Executive Committee to the Haykent Executive Committee in the second half of 1925 attest to this, referring to the border dispute between Kapan and Ghubatlu citing the same concerns. Such issues were also raised on October 18, 1926 within the report addressed to the land administration of the People's Committee of Agriculture of the Armenian SSR,” he wrote on Facebook.

“Historical documents show that the local administrations of Azerbaijan, including the Ministry of Education and Science of Azerbaijan, have always wrongfully accused the Armenian villagers living in the border areas of Zangezur of border violations and illegal activities in their own territory. Unfounded border disputes brought upon Azerbaijani allegations and against the villagers have, by all accounts, have repeatedly contributed to such provocations. In fact, these were the ways and means of occupying the territories of Soviet Armenia.

"These days, we must learn from these important historical facts, and we are duty bound to guarantee the rights of the inhabitants of the border villages of Armenia,” Tatoyan said.