Children of near border villages in Armenia learn to get protected against mortar fire

The Yerevan Office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Armenian Red Cross Society (ARCS) have organized training for the children of near border villages in Armenia.  Within two weeks AR‘S volunteers will be teaching children how to protect against mortar fire and other security measures.  In addition, ICRC launched construction of secure premises - save rooms - in ten near border communities to protect the local population against attacks.
A 16-year-old Ani Mamadyan, a pupil of Koti community school, hails the training calling it very useful for the local population. The girl complains that the authorities do not pay proper attention to the problems of the near border villages. In her words, the people feel themselves abandoned amid permanent fire by the adversary and under burden of social and economic problems
"But for the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two peoples would have reconciled long ago," the pupil says.
Felik Melikyan, the head of Koti community, says the adversary has been escalating the situation on the border during the last two years. People cannot gather harvest under permanent shelling.  "The adversary uses heavy artillery, Turkish grade launchers TR-17," he said. The same situation is in other near border communities that are under permanent shelling by Azerbaijan's Armed Forces.