For the first time, NKR residents take in air strike exercises

The first civil defence training exercises were held in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) for an air strike. Siren sounds reminded of the terrible times of the first Karabakh War, residents of Stepanakert have noted. However, some of them confessed that they did not even think of hiding into the shelter, saying that they feel quite confident under the defence of their army.

The siren of air alarm sounded in all dwelling settlements of the NKR; residents were warned by loudspeakers about the exercises, which ended in half an hour, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

People were warned, several days in advance, about the forthcoming exercises by mass media and SMS messages, which instructed how to behave in the event of air alarm and what should be taken to the nearest protective facility (shelter).

In was seen by the behaviour of kindergartens in Stepanakert it that educators are ready to promptly organize the transfer of children to the shelter; and adult residents know how to protect children, said Narine Agabalyan, the NKR's Minister of Education.

"In the 1990s, during the First Karabakh War, air strikes completely destroyed Stepanakert; there were many victims; people did not come out of the cellars for months; God forbid that it ever happens again. However, civil defence lessons and exercises are necessary, because we live in an unstable time," Tsovinar Sarkisyan, a resident of Stepanakert, has noted.