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Archival documents show that in the Soviet period, there were cases in the border disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan when the Azerbaijani authorities participated in official discussions, but at the same time carried out attacks on Armenian villagers, seized their lands and then turned those lands into a subject of discussions (the villages of Barana, now Noyemberyan, Koghb, Koti, Dovegh and others), Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan said in a Facebook post late on Sunday.

“For example, despite the order of the Central Executive Committee of the Transcaucasian Federation on April 28, 1923, which provided for the handover to the Ghazakh district of only 5,000 dessiatines [an archaic land measurement] of land of the Shinikh-Ayrum region, the Gazakh land construction group deliberately drew up a completely different plan, ignoring this decision.

“In parallel, the local authorities of Azerbaijan illegally seized more lands from the territory of the Armenian SSR than envisaged by the decision. In particular, by intimidating a local forester, they seized some 7,000 dessiatines of land, increasing their "land acquisition" to 11,800 dessiatines and making it a subject of discussion.

“Let me bring another example: starting from May 1922, the disputes and final work of the commissions on the border regions of Tavush, Karvansaray (Ijevan) and Ghazakh constantly delayed, since the Azerbaijanis seized most of the lands belonging to the Armenians but located in their territories and refused to return them. This, in turn, made it difficult for the villagers to use their pastures, forests and water resources,” the ombudsman wrote.

Citing the archival documents, Tatoyan said, in general, prehistory of disputes between the villages of these regions confirms that disputes often arose because of large Azerbaijani landowners who used to sell their lands to Armenians and then unreasonably demand them back. Whereas, the authorities of Soviet Armenia did not respond adequately to such steps of Azerbaijanis to prevent violations of the rights of Armenian peasants.

“These facts, as lessons learned, should be taken into account to prevent violations of the rights of Armenia’s border residents nowadays.

“Along with security and other components, decisions on the borders of the Republic of Armenia should also be based on the protection of the rights of villagers and the protection of human rights in general, excluding any mechanical approach,” he said.