YEREVAN. – The killed military servicemen were very far from immediate danger.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is also chairman of the Armenian State Commission on Coordination of the events dedicated to the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, stated the abovementioned before discussing the agenda items on Saturday’s sixth meeting of this commission, as he reflected on Azerbaijan’s gross ceasefire violations in the past two days.

“We [i.e. Armenians] suffered painful losses as a result of the ceasefire violation,” said the President. “Four Armenian youth, our soldiers who oversee the tranquility of their own homeland, soldiers who were very far from immediate danger and were engaged in their daily activities 5km away from the frontline, were killed. And a day earlier, three women—mother, sister, daughter—who were caring for their families with peaceful work, were killed in their home, in their garden, [and] right before the eyes of their loved ones.”

Press service of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Army had reported that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces shelled one of the northeastern protection areas of the NKR Defense Army unit, on Friday at about 5:30pm. The fire was opened from Turkish-made reactive rocket propelled howitzers (TR-107).

Consequently, NKR Defense Army soldiers Norayr Khachatryan (born in 1995), Robert Mkrtchyan (born in 1995), Harut Hakobyan (born in 1997), and Karen Shahinyan (born in 1997) died from shrapnel wounds. In addition, there are sixteen wounded military servicemen, and four of them are in critical condition.

And on Thursday, three civilians were killed in the Azerbaijani shelling at the border villages of Armenia’s Tavush Province.