Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces continued on Sunday in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh territory, and Azerbaijan’s second-largest city was attacked.
Azerbaijani officials said on Sunday that Armenian forces attacked Ganja, the country’s second-largest city. Hikmet Hajiyev, an aide to the President of Azerbaijan, tweeted a video showing damaged buildings and called it the result of “the massive Armenian missile attacks against dense residential areas” in Ganja.
The authenticity of the video could not be immediately verified. Hajiyev said in another tweet that the attacks on Ganja and other areas in Azerbaijan were launched “from the territory of Armenia.”
The Armenian Defense Ministry said that “no fire of any kind is being opened from the territory of Armenia in the direction of Azerbaijan.” But Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan confirmed on Facebook that he ordered “rocket attacks to neutralize military objects” in Ganja. His spokesman, Vahram Poghosyan, said the territory’s army destroyed a military airport in Ganja, a claim that Azerbaijani officials denied.
The attack on the city killed one civilian and injured four others, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted. Harutyunyan said he ordered his forces to stop the attacks in Ganja to avoid civilian casualties. The Nagorno-Karabakh leader added that “proportionate and crushing” attacks against the opponent’s forces would continue, if Azerbaijan does not “draw the appropriate lessons”.
The fighting, which broke out on September 27 and has continued for eight days in a row, is the largest escalation in years in the decades-long dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. The region lies within Azerbaijan, but is controlled by local ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia. Both sides said hostilities extended beyond separatist territory and accused each other of attacking areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ganja, with a population of more than 330,000, is located approximately 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) north of Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno Karabakh.
“Opening fire on the territory of Azerbaijan from the territory of Armenia is clearly provocative and expands the zone of hostilities,” Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said in a statement on Sunday.
When fighting resumed on Sunday morning, Armenian officials accused Azerbaijan of carrying out attacks against Stepanakert and targeting the civilian population there. Nagorno-Karabakh leader Harutyunyan said that, in response, his forces would attack “permanently located military installations in major cities of Azerbaijan.”
In a statement issued later on Sunday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry rejected the accusations of targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Nagorno-Karabakh officials have said that nearly 200 military personnel on their side have been killed so far. Azerbaijani authorities have not provided details on their military casualties, but said 22 civilians were killed and 74 others injured.
Nagorno-Karabakh was a designated autonomous region within Azerbaijan during the Soviet era. She claimed the independence of Azerbaijan in 1991, about three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union. A large-scale war that broke out in 1992 killed some 30,000 people.
When the war ended in 1994, Armenian forces seized not just Nagorno-Karabakh, but substantial areas outside the formal borders of the territory, including Madagiz, the town that Azerbaijan claimed to have taken on Saturday along with several others.
The fighting this week has prompted calls for a ceasefire around the world. On Thursday, the leaders of Russia, France and the United States, co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group, which was created by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1992 to resolve the conflict, issued a joint statement calling for a immediate ceasefire and “resumption of substantive negotiations … under the auspices of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group”.
Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said that Armenia’s withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh is the only condition to end the fighting.
Armenian officials allege that Turkey is involved in the conflict and is sending fighters from Syria to the region. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said earlier this week that “a ceasefire can only be established if Turkey is withdrawn from the South Caucasus.”
Ankara has denied sending foreign weapons or fighters, while publicly sided with Azerbaijan in the dispute.
On Sunday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on Ganja, saying it was proof of Armenia’s lack of respect for the law. Ankara accused Armenia of attacking civilian residential areas and claimed that Armenia could commit crimes against humanity.
“Armenia is the biggest barrier to peace and stability in the region,” the ministry said.
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