80-Year-Old Woman, Her Grandchildren Killed in Stepanakert

Intensive and heavy fighting took place in areas near Shushi and the roads leading to Shushi, reported Armenia’s Defense Ministry representative Artsrun Hovhannisyan, who said the bodies of hundreds of Azerbaijani soldiers are scattered on roads leading up to Shushi.

Artsakh Defense Army forces successfully pushed back Azerbaijani tactical reconnaissance platoons and Ankara-backed mercenaries and destroyed Azerbaijani military hardware and vehicles.

Hovhannisyan said that in the last two days the situation near Shushi was quite complicated, but added that those difficulties have already been overcome, not ruling out future flare ups.

Mayor of Shushi Artsvik Sargsyan assured that the city is in reliable hands because Artsakh forces were able to rebut enemy attacks.

Sargsyan, who is in defense positions of the city, told Armenpress that Shushi will definitely continue speaking the Armenian language the bells of Ghazanchetsots Church will continue to toll.

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“They [the Azerbaijanis] spread doctored photos that depict that they have raised a flag on the mosque, but an examination shows that it’s a fake photo. They should never think that Shushi can belong to them, it will never happen. We have to win, we will live in Shushi,” Sargsyan said.

Sargsyan said that during the clashes for Shushi the enemy has suffered major losses.

During overnight bombing of Stepanakert by Azerbaijani forces an 80-year-old woman and her two grandchildren were killed, Armenpress reported.

Arkadi and Arsen Hakhumyan were visiting their bedridden grandmother, Svetlana, when at 2 a.m. Friday an Azeri missile struck their home, destroying it completely.

The Azeri forces continue bombarding Stepanakert with cluster munitions.

“On November 6 Azerbaijan continued targeting civilian settlements and residential districts, including in capital Stepanakert, killing three civilians. Specifically a a grandmother and her two grandsons fell victim of an Azerbaijani rocket that destroyed their entire house,” Artsakh Human Rights Defender Artak Beglaryan told Armenpress.

“This is another war crime by the Azerbaijani armed forces, since it’s obvious that they deliberately target residential districts located far away from military facilities,” added Beglaryan.

“This has been going of for the past 40 days in various areas, bringing the number of civilian fatalities to at least 49, with 157 having been injured or missing. There are 17,000 civilian structures that have been destroyed either fully or partially,” explained Beglaryan.

According to the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh, the international community continues turning a blind eye to those crimes, as a result of which the crimes become more large scale.

“My demand from the international community is that they should take maximally practical steps to make Azerbaijan and Turkey respect the norms of the humanitarian law,’’ Beglaryan told Armenpress. He added that while representatives of different countries often sympathize for the plight of the Armenians in the face of the ongoing crimes, they do not take serious steps to stop them.

“For this reason our conclusion is that we have to rely mainly on ourselves, our military courage and capacity,” Beglaryan said.