The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has obliged Azerbaijan to pay €16,000 to relatives of three Armenian soldiers killed in 2016. Azerbaijan has also been obliged to pay €2,780 for costs and expenses, plus any tax that may be chargeable.
The applicants are 10 Armenian nationals who were born between 1959 and 1998 and live in Yerevan and Stepanavan (Armenia).
The applicants are the parents and/or siblings of Edgar Narayan, Erik Abovyan, and Shavarsh Melikyan, who were soldiers in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and were killed on December 29, 2016, while on duty at the Bitlis military post, close to the village of Chinari in the Tavush region of Armenia.
A criminal investigation was opened by the Chief Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia on December 29, 2016. On the same day, the investigator examined the site of the incident and drew up a report. Further evidence was adduced in the investigation, notably witness statements and forensic reports.
On the basis of that evidence, the Armenian investigative authorities established that on the morning of December 29, 2016, Çingiz Gurbanov, a soldier in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, had crossed the border into Armenian territory, advanced towards Bitlis and shot the three soldiers.
Relying on Articles 2 (right to life), 13 (right to an effective remedy), and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicants complain that their relatives were killed unlawfully, given that there was no ongoing armed conflict at the time; that they were discriminated against because of their ethnicity and national origin; and that Azerbaijan failed to conduct an effective investigation into the killings”¤
