After the tour of the ambassadors accredited to Armenia in Gegharkunik, during which they got acquainted with the situation created in the community during the large-scale military operations unleashed by Azerbaijan on September 13, the RA government officials answered the questions of the media. Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan said, “We think it is obvious that the enemy has targeted our civilian population and civilian infrastructure. The number of victims and wounded among the civilian population also speaks about it.
Among the civilian population, there are 4 dead and 6 wounded. Many infrastructures, in different directions and in different sectors, which are schools, kindergartens, administrative buildings, individual houses of people or production areas, power lines, bridges, roads, and gas pipes. They have quite a wide geography. I mean, it’s not in one place, it’s not in two places. Targeting of civilian infrastructure has been widespread. You know that there is also a case of shelling of the reservoir, we are talking about the Kechut reservoir. Emergency services, agricultural vehicles. In order to make it clear with what intention our infrastructures were targeted and shelled in those days, I would like to present the following situation, when the high-voltage power lines going from Armenia to Iran were shelled.
You know that Armenia exports quite a lot of electricity to Iran. At first, it may seem like a power line was accidentally hit. But when our specialists were not allowed to approach those lines and restore them for 12 hours, every time our specialists approached to restore the line, they came under fire every time and had to return. In that situation, we had to reduce the capacities of the nuclear power plant, Yerevan Thermal Power Plant and a number of other electricity producing plants due to having a large amount of excess electricity. In other words, they deliberately broke our entire energy system and did not leave it for hours to restore it. The reason I detailed this case is because I think it is a typical description that there was clear targeting of civilian infrastructure.
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You also know that Kechut Reservoir has been targeted.
Of course, there is no damage because the shells fell into the reservoir, but we all understand that those shells could have landed near the dam of the reservoir and the picture would have been completely different. It is such a season that the reservoir is completely full now. You also know that in many areas, hostile troops have invaded the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, threatening our other settlements as well as settlements in their targeting range.
As a result of all this, people’s right to live peacefully in their settlements was widely violated and residents of a number of our settlements were forced to evacuate from those settlements,” said the minister and informed that currently each state department has started to implement works in its direction, so that the three regional governorates and community governorates first tried to understand what infrastructures were damaged, how many displaced people we have, and what their needs are. As a result of the studies, the tasks were divided into two parts: immediate problems and longer-term problems.
Ashot HAKOBYAN
