Armenians flee from country
By Laman Sadigova
A criminal case against an Armenian family that voluntarily crossed the border into Azerbaijan was submitted to a court in Armenia.
The Armenian National Security Service launched a criminal proceeding against the Gevorgyan family, stating that it initiated the case in line with an article on the illegal border crossing.
Yegishe Gevorgyan (born 1958), his wife Ruzanna Mardanyan (born 1982) and three children - Alfred (born 2002), Gayane (born 2003) and Petros (born 2006) illegally crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani into the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic on January 10, 2010.
They explained that their leaving Armenia was due to unbearable living conditions and asked to be sent to a third country.
On December 12, 2014, Azerbaijan handed over the Gevorgyan family to the Armenian side.
This is not the first case of Armenians unwilling to live in their own country. Recently, Armenian soldier, Andranik Grigoryan surrendered voluntarily to the Azerbaijani forces. Clarifying the reasons for his defection from the army, Griogoryan said he couldn't bare the tortures anymore and crossed to Azerbaijan unhesitatingly.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
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