YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS.  The situation of one of the tree Russian reporters injured at Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots Church is critical, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Facebook page of the Human Rights Defender’s Office of Artsakh.

The reporters were in Ghazanchetsots Church to cover the first Azerbaijani strike against the Church, when they bombed for the second time.

‘’Different citizens and reporters who witnessed the incident say that the strike was followed by an UAV flying over the church for a while, which a bit later struck the church.  These facts show that it was visible for the Azerbaijani armed forces that they were striking the church and that there were reporters with badges inside. Therefore, there are no doubts that Azerbaijan deliberately carried out a targeted strike against the reporters and the church. Moreover, fact-finding works showed that the Azerbaijani armed forces also carried out strikes nearby Shushi’s Mosque’’, reads the statement of the Human Rights Defender’s Office.

Strongly condemning the deliberate targeting of reporters and the church by Azerbaijan, the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh assesses it as a war crime and crime against humanity. The Defender  urges international human rights organizations to give adequate assessment to the incident and take measures for punishing those responsible.

A number of reporters were injured on October 8 during the bombing of Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, one of them, a Russian journalist, is in critical situation. Doctors of Artsakh are sparing no efforts to save his life.

Earlier two French reporters of Le-Monde had been injured in Martakert. One of them was in critical situation, but doctors of Artsakh were able to save his life.

Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh and Armenia has resulted in 22 civilian victims. Artsakh’s major cities and towns have been under heavy bombardment for days.

Turkey overtly supports Azerbaijan’s aggression. Thousands of jihadist terrorists have been deployed by Turkey in Azerbaijan to fight against Artsakh.

Editing and translating by Tigran Sirekanyan