YEREVAN (ArmRadio)—“The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia keep the situation at the border under control,” Armenian Minister of Defense Vigen Sargsyan said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“Cases of tension at the border are simple attempts on the part of the rival to destabilize the situation, and our task is not to allow these provocations reach the target,” Sargsyan said.
Speaking about the Talish family’s request for asylum in Armenia, the minister said “The step of Azerbaijani citizen Shahin Mirzoev requesting a temporary asylum from the Armenian authorities comes to once more prove the fact that the discrimination against the ethnic minorities still remains part of Azerbaijani state policy.”
“As soon as we received a request from the citizen of Azerbaijan, we discussed it and concluded that there were no grounds to refuse asylum,” Sargsyan said. “We’ll work in cooperation with international organizations to do our best to protect the man’s rights and find a permanent asylum for him.”
According to Sargsyan, when the Ministry received the asylum request from the Azerbaijani citizen, they had “no grounds to reject that request.”
He added that in cooperation with international structures, Armenia will do its best to protect the rights of the Azerbaijani citizen and find a permanent shelter for him.
The spokesman of Armenia’s Foreign Ministry earlier stated that Azerbaijani journalist at the “Tolishi Sado” newspaper Shahin Mirzoev, who is also a member of Talish Cultural Council and the Talish freedom movement, had requested a temporary asylum in Armenia. Mirzoev was obliged to flee from Azerbaijan due to the persecutions against ethnic and religious minorities and gross violations of their rights.
According to the source, Mirzoev safely arrived in Armenia with his family.
