Olesya Vartanyan, senior analyst for the South Caucasus region at Crisis Group, has interviewed over 15 civilians who had just come from Nagorno-Karabakh and who had witnessed killings by the Azerbaijani military.
Even before the current intense fighting, villages saw groups of armed people, who killed local civilians and burnt their houses, Vartanyan said in a Twitter thread on Sunday, November 9.
Zhora, 70, was among the very last to leave his native Karmir Shuka village. A rocket destroyed the entrance to his house the moment his car was taking off. For days he and some other males had to hide in gardens and forests. People were killed every day, Zhora said. He cited names of several civilians he knew in person.
Vartanyan said she received names from other residents of the villages, including relatives of those who got killed. The researcher's list confirmed by at least three sources currently consists of five civilians, all males, killed with guns within one week. Women and children left the villages days before the events.
Zhora said they were at first able to wrap bodies in bed sheets and bury them at night but it was impossible in later days due to the growing number of armed personnel. They had to keep the bodies in the open air for many days, which means some of them may not have been buried at all.
The day Zhora left, a resident of the nearby of Taghavard, Ovik, 52, was first wounded in the leg and later shot in his head when trying to find a refuge at a forest close to Zardanashen, another village. Ovik's wife, Emma, and their three daughters left days before and asked him to join, but he “wanted to take care of houses”, his wife said, although he was disabled and had heart and respiratory problems.
Two residents of Taghavard village said their houses were set on fire before the current intense fighting.
"For those, who may have questions, the accounts were collected independently. I found these people through random visits to a number of places, where the displaced live, or through friends, none of whom are officials or politicians either in Yerevan or Stepanakert," Vartanyan said, adding that she is planning to continue collecting more stories from civilians coming from Karabakh.
Azerbaijan, with help from Turkey and terrorist mercenaries deployed by Ankara, started a war against Karabakh (Artsakh) in the morning of September 27. The Armenian side has reported deaths and injuries both among the civilian population and the military. Foreign and local journalists too have been injured in Azeri shelling of towns and villages.
