By Artak Khulian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Armenia’s government and military continued to downplay on Tuesday, May 13, the significance of cross-border gunfire from Azerbaijan reported by residents of several Armenian border villages on a virtually daily basis.
Residents of one such village, Movses, spoke of more intensive-than-usual gunshots fired by Azerbaijani troops in the morning. They said the target of the gunshots was not immediately clear.
“They always opened fire after midnight [in recent weeks,]” one of them, Zaven Papyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But today they fired for the first time in the morning.”
Movses is located hundreds of kilometers northwest of two other border villages, Khnatsakh and Khoznavar, that are at the epicenter of Azerbaijani truce violations reported for the last two months. Several local houses have been damaged by what local residents call nightly gunfire. They say they are now afraid of not only spending nights in their homes but also working in their fields.
“It’s the same thing every night,” one man from Khoznavar said by phone. “They fire at the village.”
