RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan issued a statement “The staff of the Human Rights Defender receives alarms from the residents of village Movses and a number of other villages of Tavush region of the Republic of Armenia that the Azerbaijani armed forces started firing in the direction of Tavush region on 12 July at about 11 p.m. The Human Rights Defender’s staff received similar calls during the day on 12 July.

According to the information provided to Human Rights Defender by the residents of the village of Movses, the shots fired by from the Azerbaijani side are fired at a very close distance to the village. According to the civilian population, the shelling is carried out in a way that the danger of harming civilian settlements, their health and life, property becomes obvious.

Immediately after the mentioned alarms, the Human Rights Defender registered a public official statement of the RA Ministry of Defense that the Azerbaijani side was shelling the positions of the Armenian Armed Forces. In addition, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia confirmed with an official urgent inquiry of the Human Rights Defender that the shelling was carried out in the immediate vicinity of the peaceful settlements of the Tavush region of the Republic of Armenia and there is a real danger of harming 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 and that it is carried out in the immediate vicinity of peaceful settlements of the Republic of Armenia, with real danger of harming the inhabitants, their health and life. This phenomenon is even more reprehensible under the situation of the new type of coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

“The Human Rights Defender draws the attention of international human rights organizations to the mentioned facts, informs that he has initiated a targeted monitoring, the results of which will be summarized and sent to international organizations,” the statement reads.