11:48, 21 February 2022

Karabakh villagers demand protection against regular shelling

Nagorno-Karabakh, February 20, 2022. Photo by Alvard Grigoryan for the "Caucasian Knot"

The General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Nagorno-Karabakh has reported shelling of houses in the village of Tagavard on February 18. According to the GPO, walls and windows were damaged. Shelling occurs regularly; and authorities should ensure security, villagers demand.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are regularly accusing each other of shelling. On February 18, Baku announced that Armenian militaries shelled the positions of Azerbaijani militaries located in the Tovuz District, but the Armenian Ministry of Defence (MoD) refuted this information.

Oleg Arutyunyan, the head of the Tagavard community, said that "none of the villagers was wounded, because they were not at home at that time." "The village is shelled periodically in order to provoke panic, but people are steadfastly holding on," he said.

The owner of the house hit by the bullet, Vitaly Gevorgyan, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that during the 2020 war, the house was destroyed by artillery shelling. "The house was restored, and now it's shelled again; and I have a wife and children ... This should not continue," the man said.

Amest Atayan, a resident of Tagavard, is sure that "the only solution for the population's security is a withdrawal of Azerbaijani military posts away from the village."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 20, 2022 at 01:19 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Alvard Grigoryan

Source: CK correspondent