The Azerbaijani military on Thursday closed in on a key town in Nagorno-Karabakh following more than a month of intense fighting, while top diplomats from Azerbaijan and Armenia prepared for more talks to try to end their long conflict over the separatist territory.
Azerbaijani troops had advanced to within 5km of the strategically placed town of Shushi, Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan said, urging residents to mobilize all of their resources to fend off the attack.
“The one who controls Shushi controls Nagorno-Karabakh,” Harutyunyan said in a video address from the town’s cathedral, which was severely damaged by Azerbaijani shelling this month. “We must realize that and take part in defending Shushi. We must reverse the situation.”
Photo: EPA-EFE / Lusi Sargsyan / PHOTOLURE
Shushi is located about 5km south of Nagorno-Karabakh’s regional capital, Stepanakert.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994.
The latest fighting began on Sept. 27 and has involved heavy artillery, rockets and drones in the largest escalation of hostilities over the separatist region in the quarter-century since the war ended.
Hundreds and possibly thousands of people have been killed in a little more than a month.
The separatist authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday accused Azerbaijani forces of shelling Stepanakert, Shushi and Martakert with Smerch multiple-rocket launcher systems, a Soviet-designed weapon intended to ravage wide areas with explosives and cluster munitions.
Martakert was also raided by Azerbaijani aircraft, officials said.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense denied using aviation and accused Armenian forces of shelling the Terter, Goranboy and Barda regions of Azerbaijan.
One civilian was killed in the Goranboy region, said Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The ministry reported downing two Armenian Su-25 warplanes, a claim that Armenian officials rejected as “disinformation.”
According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 1,166 of their troops and 39 civilians have so far been killed in the clashes.
Azerbaijani authorities have not disclosed their military losses, but have said that the fighting killed at least 90 civilians and wounded 392.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that, according to Moscow’s information, the death toll from the fighting was nearing 5,000, a significantly higher number than officially reported.
The latest US-brokered truce frayed immediately after it took effect on Monday, just like two previous ceasefires negotiated by Russia.
The two sides have repeatedly blamed each other for breaches.
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