YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS. You cannot surprise the population of Nagorno-Karabakh with the sounds of shots and guns. People living in a fragile world have long been accustomed to the feeling of a constant threat of attack. The same was on April 2, 2016, but the next Azerbaijani provocation quickly turned into a large-scale military operation. Military posts, as well as areas populated by peaceful inhabitants, were targeted by the Azerbaijani forces.

The morning in Nerkin Chartar village started as usual: children were going to school without having a sense of foreboding that they may appear under massive artillery fire. There was an explosion and the children fell down. 12-year-old Vagharshak Harutyunyan died at the scene. His friends were seriously injured. The rocket exploded next to the school not far from the square, where the school-wide morning exercise was supposed to take place in a few minutes.

The residents of Talish village, which is located very close to the Azerbaijani border, assessed  the danger much earlier. The village was located on one of the main directions of the Azerbaijani forces attacks. The Khalapyans, an extended family of nine, were living in the northwestern part of the village. Valery and Razmella Khalapyans were living with their son and six grandchildren. Valery Khalapyan’s mother, 92-year-old Marousya Khalapyan was also living with them. After the beginning of the shelling, Valery’s son took her wife and children to a safe place. He did not manage to take his parents and grandmother as there was no place left in his car. Before his return, the Azerbaijani soldiers had already entered the village. The Azerbaijani shot 64-year-old Valery Khalapyan and his 60-year-old wife Razmella Vardanyan were shot and tortured, with their ears cut off They also killed Marousya Khalapyan born in 1924.

On the same day, other shots of cruelty by the Azerbaijani soldiers appeared on the Internet, which were proudly shared on different Azerbaijani websites. Military criminals were shamelessly proud of their “trophies”. Private Kyaram Sloyan, a soldier from the Artsakh Defense Army, was beheaded after his death and Major Hayk Toroyan was beheaded alive. Members of the Armed forces of Azerbaijan also beheaded a 68-year-old military contractor and driver Hrant Gharibyan. According to available open sources, the criminals who did these atrocities were later awarded.  Azerbaijani President IlhamAliyev himself awarded one of those servicemen Elnur Ferzaliev, who demonstrated the cut head of Private Kyaram Sloyan in one of the Azerbaijani villages as a “trophy”.

This is not the first time that military criminals appear in the rank of Azerbaijani heroes for their actions against humanity. It is worth remembering Azerbaijani serviceman Ramil Safarov, who in 2006 killed a sleeping Armenian serviceman Gurgen Margaryan during the NATO training in Hungary. Safarov was brought to the Hungarian Justice, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, however, he was later extradited to Azerbaijan, where he was welcomed as a hero and until now he is taken as an example for the younger generations.

It should be noted, that Azerbaijan was sued by the European Court of Human Rights. Only in 2016, 23 lawsuits werefiled against the military crimes of the Azerbaijani servicemen, with which the ECHR launched an investigation, and has already started the procedure of communications with Azerbaijani authorities. Until now, no decisions were made on these issues.

Vlad Vardanyan