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After more than a month of fighting over this mountainous province, Azerbaijan appears to have managed to surround this strategic city, located 15 km from the main city of Karabakh, Stapanakert.
Shusha on the hill is close to the main road that connects the capital of the unrecognized republic with Armenia, supporting the separatists fighting for the independence of Karabakh.
Shushan Stepanian, a spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry, said there was “extremely intense and fierce fighting” in the vicinity of Shusha on Saturday night. The official added that the attacks in Azerbaijan were repelled.
Yerevan also stated that Shusha, where a critical cathedral for Armenians was damaged during attacks last month, was shot dead overnight.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, for its part, has denied the statement, saying that the information about the Shushan bombing was “completely false”.
The battle between Azerbaijan and the Armenian-backed Nagorno-Karabakh separatists, which declared its independence from Baku during the devastating war of the 1990s, began on September 27.
The recent outbreak of violence is the most serious in decades and has already claimed more than 1,000 lives. Several civilians are among the victims and the actual death toll is believed to be much higher.
The fighting continues despite the efforts of Russia, France and the United States to help agree to a lasting ceasefire.
The three countries lead the so-called Minsk Group, which helped declare a ceasefire in 1994 between the two rival former Soviet republics. Still, mediators have so far been unable to find a final solution to this long-running conflict.
Baku and Yerevan accuse each other of shooting civilians, and the United Nations announced this week that reckless attacks could constitute “war crimes.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has requested military support from allied Russia and Azerbaijan has secured Turkish support. Ankara is accused of sending mercenaries to Karabakh to fight the Armenian separatists.
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