Azerbaijani military posts open gunfire on border villages.
On September 1, schoolchildren across Armenia began their first day of school. The day was marked in towns and villages and in the capital Yerevan with nervous parents handing their children to smiling teachers, happiness, flowers, balloons and a few tears.
What for many parents is a day of happiness, for others the day was marred by gunfire and uncertainty.
On August 31st at around midnight and then in the early morning hours of September 1, Azerbaijani forces opened fire on the border villages of Baghanis and Voskevan, forcing the festive first day of school to be cut short.
The mayor of Baghanis, Narek Sahakyan told CivilNet that although the night passed in relative calm, at around 10-11:00 a.m. on September 1, Azerbaijani forces began firing in the direction of the village just as festivities for the first day of school were underway.
The children were given their homework and quickly dismissed, according to Sahakyan. Later in the afternoon, gunfire erupted yet again.
“Luckily, there is only financial damage and there are no injuries or casualties,” the mayor said. “The important thing is that we trust our army and the army is standing solid in its place.” He went on to say that there is now “relative peace.”
Residents living in border villages in Tavush marz have become accustomed to periodic gunfire aimed at their direction from a number of Azerbaijani military posts, some of which are a few hundred meters away from their homes.
Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the spokesperson of Armenia’s Defense Ministry said that gunfire from Azerbaijani positions along several border villages in the marz of Tavush were not particularly “strong” nor were they continuous and were silenced as a result of measures taken by the Armenian military.