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Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan recalls brutal killings of elderly people, beheadings and other war crimes committed by Azerbaijani forces five years ago on this day.

"In the early morning of April 02, 2016, i.e. at the very beginning of the hostility in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), Vagharshak Grigoryan, a 12-year-old student of the Martuni region Nerkin Tshartar secondary school was killed as a result of targeted shelling of the school. Four other 11, 12 and 13-years old children were heavily wounded,} Tatoyan said, adding: "Within very few hours, Azerbaijani soldiers committed terrific brutalities. One of the vivid examples is the killing of an elderly couple, Valerik Khalapyan and Razmela Vardanyan and the complete destruction of their house in Tallish. They were shot in their home and were tortured, with their ears cut off." 

The Ombudsman also recalls how Azerbaijani soldiers killed and beheaded a member of Artsakh Defense Army Kyaram Sloyan. After beheading the head was taken by the retreated Azerbaijani troops. Later, pictures of Azerbaijani soldiers holding Sloyan’s decapitated head surfaced in social networks.

In the words of the Ombudsman, no matter by what name you refer to it, at the highest level in Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Armenian people, and the citizens of Armenia are considered enemies; and, a whole generation has grown up feeling hatred and enmity with state patronage. 

"The real situation is that a genocidal policy is being pursued. That is based on objective and concrete evidence. Impunity breeds new and more serious crimes which we witnessed during the September-November 2020 war," Tatoyan concluded.