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Advertising Stepanakert (Azerbaijan) (AFP)
On Sunday, Armenian separatist militants in Nagorno Karabakh and the Azerbaijani army stepped up the exchange of artillery shelling, targeting in particular the separatist capital and the second city of Azerbaijan, on the eighth day of bloody fighting.
The two sides also stepped up offensive statements, ignoring calls from the international community for a ceasefire and exchanging accusations about responsibility for the conflict.
Since Friday, Stepanakert, the largest city in the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region, has been bombed, forcing residents to take refuge in basements and shelters. In addition, the power was cut from Saturday night to Sunday in the city.
The intensity of the artillery barrage escalated to new levels on Sunday around 09:30 (0530 GMT), as reported by AFP correspondents, as sirens sounded almost incessantly. The center of the city and its surroundings were attacked, and clouds of black smoke rose in the eastern part.
Residents took refuge in existing shelters, as well as in the basement of a church where several families sought refuge.
A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry, Artzron Hovensyan, accused “Azerbaijani forces of bombing civilian targets”.
According to local authorities, the bombardment was carried out using multiple launch systems from Smerch and Bolognese, and the drones flew over the city.
The head of the separatist region, Arayik Harutyunyan, announced that his forces would respond by attacking the military infrastructure stationed in “major cities” of Azerbaijan, located far from the front, and called on “civilians to leave these cities immediately.”
– “It’s just the first” –
Following this, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced that the country’s second city, “Ganja, is under fire from Armenian forces.” Baku accused Armenia of carrying out the bombing, which was denied by Yerevan.
For his part, a spokesman for the presidency of the Sultan of Nagorno-Karabakh, Vagram Boghossian, announced that these attacks were perpetrated by Armenian separatists, highlighting the “destruction” of a military airport. “It’s just the first,” he said.
Turkey condemned what it said were attacks carried out by Armenian forces in the city of Ganja, and the Turkish Foreign Ministry considered in a statement that “the Armenian attacks on civilians today in Azerbaijan’s second largest city of Ganja are a new indication of their position (Yerevan) that does not recognize the law. We condemn these attacks. ” .
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry also stated that “Armenian forces fire projectiles at the cities of Tartre and Horadze in the Fizuli region from Khankendi”, which is the Azerbaijani designation for Stepanakert.
At the front, the two teams confirm, as in previous days, field victories.
On Saturday night, the head of the separatist region confirmed that “the army improved its positions, paving the way for advance.”
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry confirmed that since the beginning of the fighting on September 27, 14 villages have been captured, in addition to the strategic Morovdag mountain range.
And Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced on Saturday night, in a tweet, the control of seven villages during the day.
– Withdrawal from “occupied territories” –
Hours earlier, he had reiterated that the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the “occupied territories” alone could end the conflict that has continued since 1990.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia is facing “perhaps the most decisive moment in its contemporary history”, and called for mobilization to achieve “victory”.
The Nagorno Karabakh region, which has an Armenian majority, declared secession from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, sparking a war that caused 30,000 deaths. No peace agreement was signed between the two sides, although the front has been almost frozen since then, but it witnessed clashes from time to time.
The two sides accuse each other of resuming fighting on September 27, which has produced what could be the most dangerous crisis in the region since the 1994 ceasefire, raising fears of an open war between Armenia. and Azerbaijan.
The outcome of the fighting remains partial, as Baku has not announced its military losses. So far, 245 people have been registered, including 209 separatist militants, 14 Karabakh civilians and 22 Azerbaijani civilians. Each side confirms that, on the other side, more than two thousand combatants have died.
The possibility of an open war between the two South Caucasus countries, which was previously within the Soviet Union, raises fears of further instability in light of competition from multiple powers in the region, including Russia, the traditional regional government, and Turkey, an ally of Azerbaijan, Iran and the West.
Ankara is already accused of adding fuel to the fire by encouraging Baku to launch a military offensive and is suspected of sending loyal Syrian mercenaries to Karabakh. At least 64 of them have died in this area since the fighting began, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
© 2020 AFP
