Arman Tatoyan: When shelling frontier villages in Armenia,  Azerbaijani Armed Forces targeted civilians 

ArmInfo.The Human Rights Defender's Office carried out a fact- finding mission in the border villages of Tavush region affected by shelling by the Azerbaijani  Armed Forces. The Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan  stated this at a press conference, presenting a report on the  shelling of border villages in September 2018.

He stressed that the purpose of collecting information in the border  villages that were shelled in September of this year was, first of  all, to present the current situation in these localities. "All  actions carried out by the Ombudsman's office were directed  exclusively to protect the rights of civilians, who were bombarded  for several days in September. After the research we carried out, it  became obvious that the target of the Azerbaijani armed forces was  the civilian population, as schools, gardens, local government  buildings, as well as houses of civilians in the villages were  shelled, " Tatoyan said, stressing that the shelling was carried out  mostly in the daytime, when civilians were particularly active.

The Human Rights Defender stated that information was collected on  the basis of alarms from residents of these communities. He stressed  that during the collection of information, the staff of the  Ombudsman's office interviewed villagers, inspected the facilities  subjected to shelling, and conducted surveys. "I want to note that  during the visit to the border villages, we not only collected  information about the shelling, but also discussed social issues that  are on the agenda in these localities. We discuss these issues and  then let the government know about it, these issues are solved over  time. In particular, we raised issues related to benefits, heating,  the use of unused land ", the defender of human rights said.  Tatoyan  noted that in this case the rights of the most vulnerable groups of  society, children, elderly women and people with disabilities were  also violated. According to the Human Rights Defender, the human  right to property was also violated, as residential buildings were  also attacked. He also stressed that the border villages of Tavush  region were listed on Google map.  The Ombudsman stressed that this  report will be submitted to the National Assembly, since the MPs have  the opportunity to raise these issues at international platforms,  also at the Foreign Ministry and a number of international human  rights organizations.  Tatoyan stressed that this report aims to  present to the international community the situation that now  prevails in the border villages.  "This report is based on objective  facts and pursues only one goal - to protect human rights. It has no  connection with politics, with the government. All information  collected on the basis of a visit to these settlements," Tatoyan  concluded.  To note, since September 2, the border villages of the  Tavush region, Baghanis, Voskevan, Kochi and Vazashen, have been  systematically attacked by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. These  shelling were carried out on residential buildings.