BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
Imagine, for a moment, that you are a parent who last week buried your son—a soldier killed by Azerbaijani forces during a massive attack on the Nagrono-Karabakh Republic. Imagine you are the same parent who is forced to re-inter your son because you’ve just received his decapitated head after the International Committee of the Red Cross reclaimed it from Azerbaijan in an exchange of dead soldiers.
That was the case for the Sloyan family of the Artshavan village in central Armenia. Their son, Kyaram, who would have turned 20 on April 27, was part of a unit stationed in Martakert and was killed and reportedly decapitated by Azerbaijani soldiers. His headless body was buried on April 4. The disturbing images of his head made the rounds on social media last week posted by Azerbaijanis who celebrated Sloyan’s brutal death as a victory.
Then there was the elderly couple in Talish. They were brutally murdered in their home and their ears were cut off as trophies by the Azerbaijani armed units. Those pictures also made the rounds on social media to sensitize international observers of the tactics employed by the Azerbaijanis during their latest attacks on Artsakh.
The Armenian Defense Ministry is accusing Azerbaijan of wide-spread war crimes, after seeing the ICRC-mediated exchange of bodies.
Yet the international community has, once again, opted to give Azerbaijan another pass for its well-documented savagery, which has been on display since the beginning of the Karabakh conflict. From Sumgait, to Kirovabad, to Baku and Maragha and Shahumian Azerbaijan has shown the world what kind of brutality its soldiers are capable of. The silence or lack of reaction has emboldened Azerbaijan to use such violence as a cornerstone of its military strategy.
At a press conference on Saturday in Yerevan, the US Co-chairman of the OSCE Minks Group. James Warlick, said that he and his colleagues were “disturbed” by reports of brutality on the frontline and went on to regurgitate the same old assertion that the sides must sit down to negotiate for a lasting peace in that region.
Russia, on the other hand, was more hands on in its decision to turn a blind eye on Azerbaijan’s atrocities. It’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov traveled to Baku to shake the hand of the perpetrator Ilham Aliyev, while it prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev went to Armenia to promise that Russia would continue selling Azerbaijan weapons, which are then used against Armenians in Artsakh.
The world also quietly watched as Ramil Safarov used an ax to murder the Armenian soldier Gurgen Markarian. When Safarov was handed back to Azerbaijan, which welcomed him as a hero, the world community was retrained in its condemnation.
As both sides are being pressed by mediators and world leaders to refrain from escalating military operations, families like the Sloyans have to live with the brutality that befell their son and await news of future such incidents, because for the Warlicks of the world such savagery is an inconvenience in their quest to advance a “peace plan” that is skewed to Azerbaijan’s favor that they are willing to give Baku yet another license to kill.
Why are those pictures of mutilation not being publicized to the media of the world? When ISIS decapitated, they were all over world media. We need to show Azeris are not any less barbaric. But that will not be enough. It wasn’t enough to show the world how barbaric were the Turks 100 years ago. Azeris should be made to pay a hefty price for their war crimes, so they wouldn’t dare do it again. That’s how the parents of Kyaram Sloyan will find some consolation in their sons death.
They were posted on Armenian websites for over a week after the war. Then the beheadings of the two soldiers came out. It was clear that posting photos of headless bodies or heads was too much and unprecedented for Armenian media and I think they stopped posting them so much. The Armenian Yezidi media posted a lot about Sloyan especially the photos.
We deserve every drop of warm spit the Russians are directing toward us. This is the cultivation of two decades of worshipping a country that will throw us under the bus within seconds.
We have no friends but ourselves.
We need to somehow settle this conflict and dump Russia as a strategic partner. The only positive direction is the West and EU.
West and EU, forget it, what did they do the last 100 years? NOTHING, Turkey closed the border against all Int’l laws and what did they do? NOTHING. Russia is less evil than the west, not a saint, but less evil.
There is only one way to deal with this savagery. Give the “civilized world one week to rebuke this barbarity. If it doesn’t, then promise more severe barbaric acts from our end with the next attack.
Very pertinent and unfortunate topic of war crimes. Thank you!
However, it would relevant to include that Sloyan is a Yezidi. A member of a minority group has been martyred for an Armenian cause and of course, a Armenia cause.
Armenians are once again betrayed by the world, mainly Russia and the West
Invest in military weapons for Armenia. Its the only “political tool” that these animals understand: a strong potent army.. These people tried to wipe us out completely 100 years ago to basically steal our wealth.and now desperately tries to continue to escape justice and needs to make sure that Armenia doesn’t become great, powerful, larger in any way. Same reason the Turks are murdering Kurds today. Next Azeri incubation needs to bring an attitude of the time to liberate more lands.
Anyone failing to blame Axerbaijan is taking their side.
Well…..I think Armenian forces need some brutal military warlords too……like Dracules…..to show no mercy for their soldiers. This is not the war for territories….this is the war for very existence of Armenian people that they have so hard been trying wipe off for centuries. What are Armenian scientists dooing? Where are the bright heads? Some state like North Korea digging warms for food managed to develop nukes, successfully tested. Armenia with a nuclear power station, and best scientists all over ex USSR, sitting idle. Time to think.
Stop whining! Every time those animals do something outrageous everyone on this website starts making calls to senators and presidents and commitees as if they care. Armenians only have Armenians, stop wasting time and money going down these dead end roads and send money to Armenia. That is the only path we can take. Also stop complaining about Russia because they give Armenia all the weapons it needs to keep those barbarians away.