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The upper Taghavard community in Artsakh’s Martuni region, which fell under Azerbaijani control following the 2020 war, was shrouded in smoke on Tuesday as Azerbaijani occupants set fire to the barns, gardens and several houses belonging to the Armenians forcibly displaced from the area, Rudik Badasyan, a resident of Taghavard village, told Pastinfo on Wednesday.

"It was about 2:30pm when we noticed smoke in the Azerbaijani-held upper part of the village. Suddenly we saw houses burning: one had a barn, another a garden and the third a house. We stood and watched as our houses were set on fire,” the man said.

“At least 8-10 houses were burnt. Probably they [the Azerbaijanis] saw that people had gathered and were looking in their direction. After a while a fire truck arrived, but they did absolutely nothing, no one even took the hose in their hands for show,” Badasyan added.

The Artsakh resident, whose house is also located in the Azerbaijani-held part of Taghavard, said Tuesday’s incident was the most painful after the war as the “enemy burnt down everything we had created during our lifetime before our eyes and we could not do anything about it.”