Azerbaijani Forces Kill One Armenian Civilian and Wound Three Others Near Shushi

STEPANAKERT — One Armenian resident of Nagorno-Karabakh was killed and three others wounded by Azerbaijani forces on Monday, authorities in Stepanakert said.

According to them, the four men came under fire while repairing water pipes just outside the Azerbaijani-controlled town of Shushi. The National Security Service said it is investigating the incident together with other law-enforcement agencies.

All four civilians were transported to a hospital in Karbakh’s capital Stepanakert, with one later dying of his wounds. The deceased civilian was 22 years old. The three injured civilians are 31, 41 and 43 years old. Their conditions have been described as stable.

Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanyan, reported separately that the 22-year-old victim was a utility worker. Stepanyan described his killing as further proof of Azerbaijan’s “Armenophobic, genocidal and fascist behavior.”

The young man is the second Karabakh civilian killed since a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10, 2020. A 55-year-old Karabakh Armenian farmer was shot dead by Azerbaijani troops outside the northern Karabakh town of Martakert last month.

The latest shooting reportedly occurred at a section of the sole road currently connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Traffic through that road section was suspended as a result, according to Stepanyan.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the “gross violation of the ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani armed forces” as well as Aliyev’s “consistent Armenophobic rhetoric.” It said they make mockery of Baku’s offers to normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.