Karam Sloyan
| Kyaram Sloyan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
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 | Soldier |
| Unit |
Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
|
| Battles/wars | 2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes |
| Awards |
|
Kyaram or Qyaram Sloyan (Armenian: Քյարամ Սլոյան; 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.
On May 28, 2016 he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Combat Cross (1st degree) by the President of Armenia.
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.
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 afterwards mutilated and beheaded. Images of Azerbiajani soldiers holding his severed head were posted on the 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".
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Wikipedia