23:47, 8 October, 2020
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. French reporter of Le-Monde Allan Kaval , who was critically injured by Azerbaijani bombing of Martuni city, presented details of the incident and thanked everyone who had a contribution to saving his life. ARMENPRESS reports Allan Kaval wrote on his Facebook page that on October 1 together with his colleague reporter Hermine Virabyan, photo journalist Rafael Yaghobzadeh were doing their professional job in Martuni, a town in Artsakh not far away from the contact line, when Azerbaijan started the bombardment of the town.
‘’It was midday and walking in a street we suddenly heard the voice of “Grad’’ missiles fired from Azerbaijani positions in our direction. They were bombing the city and fire and pieces of metal were dropping on us like rain. Grisha Narinyan, an employee at Martuni city hall, who was showing us the places of previous attacks, died. He was 28 years old. I am thinking about him and his family every day. Grisha died, since he wanted the world to hear about the sufferings of his people. May he rest in peace with the three other civilians killed in that bombing’’, he wrote.
‘’My colleague Hermine, whom I greatly appreciate, fortunately was able to avoid injuries. If I understand properly, dozens of fragments had appeared inside my body’’, he wrote, adding that he is in the stage of recovery.
‘’But I would be unable to write all this if there were not the people who save me in Martuni, Stepanakert, Yerevan and Paris. Some of them are famous, some are my friends, some were people whom I never knew. Among them there were residents of Martuni, who played a decisive role in the first minutes trying to take us to a safe place. I want to also thank my colleague reporters, who took me from there to the hospital of the town. I want to thank also my other colleagues who were there and informed Paris about the situation. I am particularly thankful to Hermine and Regis Gente. I want to thank the entire medical staff of Martuni hospital who allocated their time to save the lives of two foreigners at a time when their town was being bombed. I want to thank the people who took me from Martuni to Stepanakert hospital with an old-fashioned ambulance by a difficult-to-pass road. I know how much efforts the doctors of Stepanakert made for saving my life. I haven’t had time to learn their names yet, but I am deeply grateful to each of them. I am also deeply grateful to the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia and France, who ensured our transportation by a helicopter to Yerevan. Of course, all this would be impossible without the role of the French President Macron, who publicly spoke about our case and did impossible to take us out, also without Foreign Minister of France Jean-Yves Le Drian’’, French reporter of Le-Monde Allan Kaval wrote.
Earlier today a Russian reporter was critically injured by Azerbaijani bombing in another town of Artsakh, Shushi. He, together with his colleague reporters was covering the consequences of an Azerbaijani strike against famous Ghazanchetsots Church, when the church was again bombed. The doctors are still struggling for his life.
Editing and translating by Tigran Sirekanyan