According to them, the four men came under fire while repairing water pipes just outside the Azerbaijani-controlled town of Shushi (Shusha). The National Security Service said it is investigating the incident together with other law-enforcement agencies.
Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, reported separately that the 22-year-old victim was a utility worker. Stepanian described his killing as further proof of Azerbaijan’s “Armenophobic, genocidal and fascist behavior.”
The young man is the second Karabakh civilian killed since a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10, 2020. A 55-year-old Karabakh Armenian farmer was shot dead by Azerbaijani troops outside the northern Karabakh town of Martakert last month.
The latest shooting reportedly occurred at a section of the sole road currently connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Traffic through that road section was suspended as a result, according to Stepanian.
The Azerbaijani authorities did not immediately comment on the incident.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev visited Shushi earlier on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the town’s capture by the Azerbaijani army during the six-week war. “Armenia will always live with the stigma of a defeated nation,” Aliyev declared in a speech delivered there.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the “gross violation of the ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani armed forces” as well as Aliyev’s “consistent Armenophobic rhetoric.” It said they make mockery of Baku’s offers to normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.