Armenian Ombudsman Kristinne Grigoryan has said that shooting and terrorist attacks in peaceful settlements of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) are coordinated by the Azerbaijani authorities and are manifestations of national and religious hatred towards Armenians.

Grigoryan told an online press conference on Friday, February 11 that the numerous reports of the Human Rights Defenders of Armenia and Artsakh, as well as fact-finding missions of international organizations prove that the policy of ethnic and religious hatred towards Armenians pursued by Azerbaijan is systemic.

“The state propaganda of hatred and enmity towards Armenians today has extremely dangerous and fascist manifestations," Grigoryan said.

"I want to emphasize that our research proves that the policy of the Azerbaijani authorities is based on two pillars: ethnic and religious. More often they talk about national hatred, anti-Armenianism, and therefore in many cases religious hatred fades into the background. But our reports prove that there is also hatred on religious grounds."

The Azerbaijanis have been attempting to make Karabakh residents flee their villages in the past several weeks now. A civilian was injured in Azerbaijan's shooting from across the contact line on Thursday, the Karabakh police said. The man identified as Suren Baghdasaryan (b. 1971) sustained a back injury when doing agricultural work after a shell exploded in his backyard.