We read from News.am:
The Amaras monastic complex, which is in Artsakh, is under the Russian peacekeepers, but inside the monastic complex and in its vicinity are units of the Defense Army. The entrance to the monastery is closed; during the days of the war, passage in this section was dangerous, as it was under the enemy’s direct aim. Our defenders were forced to open an entrance from the rear of the complex.
“Now the entrance can already be opened, because the Russian flag is already on the wall of Amaras and it is safe,” said Lernik Avanesyan, head of the Machkalashen community, who received a bullet wound while defending Amaras. “Not only Amaras, they wanted to take all these territories. Amaras was always their target. Even in the 1990s they wanted to take it, but they did not succeed, because our defense was strong,” he said.
The Khazaz mound is under enemy control, and from that height to Amaras is 1.5 km. Even after the ceasefire, the adversary tried to improve its positions, but failed. “They wanted to attack a height above the village; our men resisted, and they were pushed back with several wounded and dead. We called the Russian peacekeepers, they called their commanders and warned that such a thing should not happen again. The authority of the Russian peacekeeping force is great throughout the world; the Turks take that into account and do not fire.”
Platoon commander Mkhitar Ghulyan assures that the men here stand firm, consider it an honor to be defenders of Amaras, and are familiar with the enemy’s tactics: “Sometimes shouts come from the adversary; they stand on the mound and shout, then go back into the trenches. Sometimes they even shout in Armenian—’help us’—so that we move forward and fall into a trap.”
The village of Machkalashen has lost 80 percent of its cultivated areas.
