The Human Rights Defender's Office receives alarms from the residents of Movses, a number of other villages in the Tavush region of the Republic of Armenia, that the Azerbaijani armed forces started firing in the direction of the Tavush region on July 12 at around 11:00 p.m.
"The ombudsman's staff received similar calls on July 12 in the daytime. According to the Movses residents alarms addressed to the ombudsman, the azeri's shots were fired from a very close distance to the village. According to the civilian population, the shelling is carried out in a way which posing the real danger of harming civilian settlements, their health and life, property.
The Human Rights Defender took into account the official statement of the RA Ministry of Defense that the Azerbaijani side is shelling the positions of the Armenian Armed Forces. In addition, the Armenian Ministry of Defense confirmed by an urgent official request of the Human Rights Defender that the shelling was carried out in the immediate vicinity of peaceful settlements in the Tavush region of the Republic of Armenia and there is a real danger of damaging those settlements.
The staff of the Human Rights Defender maintains direct contact with the residents of the border villages and administrative bodies of the communities of the Tavush region of Armenia.
The Human Rights Defender, being an independent national human rights institution, guided exclusively by human rights principles, strongly condemns the shelling, which is carried out in the immediate vicinity of peaceful settlements in Armenia, with a real risk of harm to residents, their health and life, property.
This phenomenon is most reprehensible in the context of a new type of coronavirus epidemic. The Human Rights Defender draws the attention of international human rights organizations to the above-mentioned facts and informs that he has initiated a targeted monitoring, the results of which will be summarized and sent to international organizations", the statement reads.
