Kyaram or Qyaram Sloyan (; 27 April 1996 – 1/2 April 2016) was an

Artsakh Defense Army The Artsakh Defence Army () was the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. Established in 1992, it united previously disorganized defence units which were formed in the early 1990s. It was disbanded on 20 September 2023 under t ...

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

who was killed during the 2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes. After his death, he was beheaded, with videos and pictures showing Azerbaijani soldiers posing with his severed head posted on social networks. On May 28, 2016, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Combat Cross (1st degree) by the

President of Armenia The president of Armenia () is the head of state and the guarantor of independence and territorial integrity of Armenia elected to a single seven-year term by the National Assembly of Armenia. Under Armenia's parliamentary system, the president ...

Biography

Kyaram Sloyan was born in

Artashavan Artashavan () is a village in the Ashtarak Municipality of the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia. In the village to the northeast, is the restored 7th-century Surp Amenaprkich Church. The villages of Lusaghbyur and Nigatun Nigatun () is an abandon ...

, a village in the

Aragatsotn Province Aragatsotn (, ) is a administrative divisions of Armenia, province (''Marz (country subdivision), marz'') of Armenia. It is located in the western part of the country. The capital and largest city of the province is the town of Ashtarak. The Sta ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

on 27 April 1996 to a poor family of Kurds-Yazidi. His father, Kyalash, is a veteran of the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

. Sloyan was drafted to the

along with 100 other Armenian Yazidis at the age of 18. Sloyan, then serving the last quarter of his

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

, was one of the first to be killed during the armed clashes. He would have been

demobilised Demobilization or demobilisation (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or becaus ...

in about two months.

Death and beheading

Azerbaijani military started attacking Armenian military positions on 1 and 2 April, which resulted in casualties on both sides. Sloyan was one of the casualties. His body was afterwards mutilated and beheaded. Images of Azerbaijani soldiers holding his severed head were posted on the social-networking site

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. Soon after this, videos of Azerbaijanis holding his head appeared on various websites. In one, a soldier is giving a

Grey Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though grey ...

salute. ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' called them "shocking souvenir photos of uniformed Azerbaijani soldiers posing with the severed head". The public report of the Human Rights' defender (

ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

) of NKR said that the beheading of Kyaram Sloyan by the Azerbaijani troops constituted a "grave breach of customary international law". After news reports appeared about the images being circulated, Azerbaijani sources responded that 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.Armenian soldiers’ bodies not decapitated or desecrated, says Azerbaijan
// azvision.az.

Burial

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Armenia reported that Sloyan's body was buried without its head on April 5, 2016, in his native village of

. On April 8, through the mediation of the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

, the Azerbaijani side returned his head. Sloyan was interred for a second time the following day, to lay his head with his body.

Aftermath

A class at the school of Artashavan village is named after Sloyan. On 30 May 2016 his bust was opened in the same school. He was posthumously awarded the "For Service in Battle" medal and Order of the Combat Cross (1st degree). In April 2016 Armenia's Permanent Representative to the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

, 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 Sloyan were decapitated by Azerbaijani soldiers in a manner characteristic of

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

. According to

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, during his visit to the Terter, Agdam and Barda districts, President of Azerbaijan

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005. The son and second child of former Aze ...

awarded an Azerbaijani soldier who appeared to be one of the soldiers photographed posing with the severed head of Sloyan. Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister

Shavarsh Kocharyan Shavarsh Kocharyan (, born 3 April 1948, Yerevan, Armenia) is an Armenian diplomat, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. On November 10, 2020, during the political crisis caused by the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement The 202 ...

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 Ramil Sahib oghlu Safarov (, , born August 25, 1977) is an officer of the Azerbaijani Army who was convicted of the 2004 murder of Armenian Army Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan. During a NATO-sponsored training seminar in Budapest, Safarov broke in ...

, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for having axed a sleeping Armenian (Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan) to death in

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, was immediately pardoned, awarded and proclaimed hero by the Azerbaijani President upon his extradition to

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

in 2012.” Representatives of the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

(PACE) have stated their intentions to report the beheading to the

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent and impartial non-judicial institution established in 1999 by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the council's 46 ...

. 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." In April 2016, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

(ECHR) registered complaints applied by the families of 3 beheaded Armenian soldiers, including Kyaram Sloyan. They applied to the ECHR to recognize violations against them through inhuman treatment, disrespect of the private lives of the victims, as well as national discrimination. According to the leader of "Sinjar" Yezidi Union Boris Muraz, publications, photographs, as well as "a shocking video, which shows how one of the Azerbaijani villages gathered to demonstrate the severed head of Sloyan" are attached to the lawsuit. In his speech, the Member of the

National Assembly of Armenia The National Assembly of Armenia (, ''Hayastani Hanrapetyut'yan Azgayin zhoghov'' or simply Ազգային ժողով, ԱԺ, ''Azgayin Zhoghov'', ''AZh''), also informally referred to as the Parliament of Armenia (խորհրդարան, ''khor ...

Delegation to PACE Samvel Farmanyan stated that numerous photos in social networks are a "real evidence of cruel treatment of Azerbaijani soldiers posing with the head of Kyaram Sloyan as a trophy". According to Farmanyan, "later the head was transferred to local Azerbaijani population demonstrating it as a trophy encouraging hatred and aggression towards Armenians. No action by official Baku has followed to punish the guilty. By doing so Azerbaijan once more violated numerous international treaties". According to

Aravot __NOTOC__ ''Aravot'' (, "Morning") is a leading liberal and politically independent daily newspaper based in Yerevan, Armenia. It was founded in 1994. Its editor-in-chief is Aram Abrahamyan. History and political alignment Sources differ on who ...

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.

Awards

References

External links

The story of a hero – Kyaram Sloyan, Public TV of ArmeniaThe Beheaded Soldier by Raffi Youredjian
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sloyan, Qyaram 1996 births 21st-century Armenian military personnel Armenian Yazidis Kurds in Armenia 2016 deaths Deaths by decapitation People from Aragatsotn Province Armenian military personnel of the Nagorno-Karabakh War Artsakh military personnel 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh clashes Armenian military personnel killed in action Kurdish military personnel Azerbaijani war crimes