The situation in Harav village of the Askeran region of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is calm, and the Azerbaijani shooting has stopped since midnight.

“At this moment there is no sound, it is calm—both from us and from them. At around 1am or a little later, the Russian peacekeepers came, went up to the [combat] position from where the shooting was going on. They stayed at that position for about 25 minutes and left. There is no shooting after that. Now they have come again, went up to the other [combat] positions,” the prefect of Harav, Andranik Ghazaryan said.

The head of Harav said that the village was not damaged and its residents were not panicked.

“What happened was in the [combat] positions,” he added.

The Artsakh Ministry of Defense (MOD) informed that at around 9am on Friday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire on a sanitary vehicle of an Artsakh Defense Army unit located in the northeast. The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh has been informed about this incident.

Yesterday’s attack was in the direction of Artsakh’s Norshen community, which is located the closest to the positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces. The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, noted this in connection with the incidents in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

“There were [Azerbaijani] attacks also in the direction of Harav [village] and a number of other civilian settlements of Artsakh. Azerbaijani armed servicemen (Armed Forces, Border Guard Service, or other military) commit similar criminal encroachments also on the border settlements of Armenia. In both cases, the right to life and safety of civilians is intentionally violated, people’s normal lives, the families’ ability to earn an income, free movement on the roads, and so on are disrupted. At the same time, not only shootings, but also thefts, deliberate destruction of people’s property, obstacles to agricultural work, etc. are taking place.

In the case of both Armenia and Artsakh, [Armenian] servicemen directly protect the right to life and safety of our civilians, their right to live in peace, property, earning a family income, and the other vital rights.

In both cases, the basis, the source of nutrition of [Azerbaijani] criminal harassment, gross violations of human rights is one: the Armenophobia and enmity, ethnic cleansing and genocidal policy of the Azerbaijani authorities. This policy has institutional bases and, of course, the mentioned violations will not disappear, full security will not be ensured in such conditions,” Armenia’s ombudsman added.

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