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The Azerbaijani military forces now protect Stepanakert, the largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh. It has a population of around 50,000 inhabitants.
The AFP news agency has journalists in Stepanakert, who report that the bomb alarm went off in the morning and that several explosions could be heard later.
The Azerbaijani terrorist army is targeting civilians in Stepanakert with rocket systems, says a statement from the Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh.
DESTRUCTIONS: Nagorno-Karabakh’s largest city, Stepanakert, is bombed. The region is controlled by Armenian separatists.
It is also said that the main cities of Azerbaijan are now targeted by separatists and that the civilian population should leave the cities.
The Reuters news agency reports that the second largest city in Azerbaijan, Gandja, is also being bombed.
Among other things, the city’s airport is said to have been attacked.
Ganja has about 335,000 inhabitants and is located 100 km north of Stepanakert, but outside of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijani authorities now say one person was killed and four injured in Ganja.
A spokesman for the country’s president says that Azerbaijan will now strike targets inside Armenia if fired from these locations in Azerbaijan.
Read more: Can your personal relationship avoid an all-out war?
Loss figures uncertain
It is difficult to say how many people have lost their lives during the first week of the conflict.
Armenian separatists say their military forces have lost around 150 soldiers.
PARTIES: Azerbaijani authorities show destroyed vehicles and weapons on the side of Armenian separatists.
The Azerbaijani army does not give figures, but says it has suffered losses.
In addition, there are civilians who have lost their lives in the fighting. By some estimates, at least 240 people died and several hundred were injured.
Nagorno-Karabakh is slightly smaller than Buskerud County was previously and has about 150,000 inhabitants.
The region has been controlled by Armenian separatists since the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s. Nagorno-Karabakh is located as an island in the western part of Azerbaijan and is internationally recognized as part of this country.
Also read: Armenia mobilizes against Azerbaijan, fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh
No sign of a ceasefire
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev says no to talks with Armenia. It demands that the Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh must withdraw from the region and the other areas they now control in Azerbaijan.
Destructions after the bombing in STAIRS UP: Stepanakert, the largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Photo: ArmGov / PAN Photo / Reuters
The day before yesterday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pasjinjan accused Azerbaijan and Turkey of transporting thousands of mercenaries from Syria to the Caucasus region.
Turkey gives its full support to Azerbaijan in this conflict, and the Turks are also demanding that the Armenians leave Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia is militarily allied with Armenia and has bases with thousands of soldiers and advanced weapons in the country.
If the conflict escalates further, there is a danger that Russia and Turkey will be drawn into it from either side.
POWERFUL SHOT: A crater after a rocket launch in the Azerbaijani city of Beylagan.
Photo: TOFIK BABAYEV / AFP
The Russian website RBK writes that Russia can contribute to peacekeeping forces if both Armenia and Azerbaijan agree.
But it does not seem that the two countries are determined to do so at the moment.
The Armenian Prime Minister acknowledges that he is confident that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE, can resume its efforts to mediate the conflict.
However, through decades of talks, the OSCE has made no significant progress.
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