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Kyaram Sloyan
File:Qyaram Sloyan.jpg
Born	(1996-04-27)27 April 1996 Artashavan, Aragatsotn Province, Armenia
Died	1/2 April 2016 (aged 19) Martakert, Nagorno-Karabakh
Buried	Artashavan
Allegiance	Nagorno-Karabakh
Service / branch	Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
Years of service	2014-2016
Rank	Solider
Unit	Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
Battles / wars	2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes
Awards	"For Service in Battle" medal

Kyaram or Qyaram Sloyan (Template:Lang-hy; 27 April 1996 – 1/2 April 2016) was a Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army soldier who was killed during the 2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes. After his death he was beheaded, with videos and pictures showing Azerbiajani soldiers posing with his severed head posted on social networks. Azerbaijan has denied this incident happened.

Biography

Kyaram Sloyan was born in Artashavan, a village in the Aragatsotn Province of the Republic of Armenia on 27 April 1996 to a poor Yazidi family. His father, Kyalash, is a Nagorno-Karabakh War veteran. Sloyan was drafted to the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army along with 100 other Armenian Yazidis at the age of 18.

Sloyan, then serving the last quarter of his military service, was one of the first to be killed during the armed clashes. He would have been demobilised in about two months.

Death and beheading

Azerbaijani military started attacking Armenian military positions on April 1 and 2 which resulted in casualties on both sides. Sloyan was one of the casualties. During the attack, his unit commander Armenak Urfayan ordered the men of his unit to withdraw upon seeing the numerical superiority of the Azerbaijani forces. Sloyan however refused and both of them were killed by Azerbaijani soldiers. His body was then mutilated and beheaded. Images of Azerbiajani soldiers holding his severed head were posted on Russian-language social-networking site VKontakte. Soon after this, videos of Azerbaijanis holding his head appeared on various websites. In one, a soldier is giving a Grey Wolves salute. The Sunday Times called them "shocking souvenir photos of uniformed Azerbaijani soldiers posing with the severed head". The public report of the Human Right's defender (ombudsman) of NKR said that the beheading of Kyaram Sloyan by the Azerbaijani troops constituted a "grave breach of customary international law".

After news reports about the images being circulated, Azerbaijani sources claimed the images were false, that the soldiers depicted did not look like ethnic Azerbaijanis, and that the photos were probably taken during fighting in Syria. On 3 May the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied the images were true and said that all the bodies of Armenian soldiers had been handed over in the presence of international observers, and no traces of violence were detected on the bodies.

Burial

RFE/RL Armenia reported that Sloyan's body was buried without its head on April 5, 2016, in his native village of Artashavan. On April 8, through the mediation of the Red Cross, the Azerbaijani side returned his head. Sloyan was interred for a second time the following day, to lay his head with his body. He was posthumously awarded the "For Service in Battle" medal.

Aftermath

In April 2016 Armenia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE, Ambassador Arman Kirakosyan made a statement regarding Azerbaijan’s violations of international humanitarian law at the session of OSCE Permanent Council. He pointed out that 3 servicemen including Kyaram Aloyan were decapitated by Azerbaijani soldiers in a manner characteristic for Daesh/ISIS.

A class at the school of Artashavan village is named after Sloyan.

According to Regnum News Agency, during his visit to the Terter, Agdam and Barda districts, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev awarded an Azerbaijani soldier who appeared to be the same soldier photographed posing with the severed head of Sloyan.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan condemned the encouragement of the Azerbaijani serviceman who was depicted on another photo where the mutilated head of Sloyan was manifestly shown. According to Kocharyan, “the encouragement of such a crime at the highest state level isn’t something new for Azerbaijan: Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for having axed sleeping Armenian (Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan) to death in Budapest, was immediately pardoned, awarded and proclaimed hero by the Azerbaijani President upon his extradition to Baku in 2012.”

Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have stated their intentions to report the beheading to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. The co-rapporteurs said: "We are going to submit a report to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights on the fact of murdering and beheading of a conscript, and then publicizing it."

According to Aravot Daily, one of the soldiers posing with Sloyan's head, the person giving the Grey Wolves salute, was named Abdulmejid Akhundov, an Azerbaijani army conscript, and that he was later killed as the clashes continued, and his body was one of those returned by Armenia to Azerbaijan in the exchange organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

See also

• Gurgen Margaryan
• Yazidis

References

1. ^ Beliakov, Dmitry; Franchetti, Mark (10 April 2016). "Former Russian states on brink of renewing war". The Sunday Times.
2. ^ "Armenian Soldier Reburied". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Armenian Service. 11 April 2016.
3. "Karabakh conflict: Azerbaijani soldiers behead Ezidi from Armenia – EzidiPress English".
4. "Iraqi Yezidis express solidarity with Armenians". mediamax.am.
5. "Azerbaijani soldiers behead Armenian Yazidi Kurd: Karabakh conflict". Kurd Net – Ekurd.net Daily News.
6. "ИГИЛ в Карабахе: азербайджанские военные отрезали голову армянскому солдату". ИА REGNUM. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
7. ^ Lragir.am. "Beheading of Armenian Soldier by Azerbaijanis Is Typical Practice of Islamic State". Lragir.am. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
8. "Քյարամ Սլոյան Քյալաշի". Anunner.com. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
9. ^ "Qyaram celebrated his birthday a month earlier". A1plus. 2016-04-09. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
10. Гибель «срочника» Слояна: расправа исламистов в Нагорном Карабахе, EurAsia Daily, 17/04/16
11. ^ Президент Армении поздравил езидов с праздником Малаки Тауса, 21.04.2016, Blagovest-info
13. The interim public report of the Human Right's defender (ombudsman) of NKR, European Ombudsman Institute Official Site, April 2016
14. "Армяне организовали в соцсетях тотальную провокацию" (in Russian). ann.az. 3 April 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
15. Armenian soldiers’ bodies not decapitated or desecrated, says Azerbaijan // azvision.az.
16. "The Poor Are the First to Fight in Nagorno-Karabakh". Open Society Foundations. EurasiaNet. 11 May 2016.
17. "Armenian Soldier Reburied". Radio Liberty Armenia. 11 April 2016.
18. "Kyaram Sloyan buried for a second time". A1plus. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
19. Մարտակերտում զոհված Քյարամ Սլոյանին վերահուղարկավորել են
20. Armenian Ambassador calls to condemn Baku’s barbarities, Mediamax, 2016
21. Քյարամ Սլոյանի անվան լսարան կբացվի, The Voice of Yazidis, 2016
22. "Алиев наградил военного, отрезавшего голову армянскому солдату" (in Russian). Regnum News Agency. 2 May 2016.
23. Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan has adopted policy of carrying out crimes against humanity, 2016
24. "PACE to Present Beheading of Armenian Soldiers to Europe Human Rights Commissioner". Asbarez. 12 May 2016.
25. "Co-Rapporteurs' Visit: PACE officials address Karabakh escalation on Armenia trip". ArmeniaNow. 13 May 2016.
26. Քյարամ Սլոյանին գլխատած դիվերսանտներից մեկը ոչնչացվել է, Aravot Daily
27. Մանրամասներ` Սլոյանի գլխի հետ լուսանկարված դիվերսանտի մասին. նա «Գորշ գայլերի» ազգայնական էր, Aravot Daily

External links

• The story of a hero - Kyaram Sloyan, Public TV of Armenia
• The Beheaded Soldier by Raffi Youredjian
• "Армения заявила о трех случаях обезглавливания своих солдат в ходе обострения карабахского конфликта". Кавказский Узел. Retrieved 5 May 2016.

• 1996 births
• Armenian military personnel
• Armenian Yazidis
• 2016 deaths
• People from Aragatsotn Province