Azerbaijan, Armenia report heavy fighting over separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenia and Azerbaijan have reported heavy fighting in their conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
While disclosing this on Saturday October 3, 2020, Azerbaijan’s president said that his troops had taken a village.
Fighting that started Sept. 27 is some of the the worst to afflict Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas since the end in 1994 of a war that left the region in Azerbaijan under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces.
Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanian, said intensive fighting was “taking place place along the entire front line” on Saturday and that Armenian forces had shot down three planes.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied any planes being shot down and said Armenian personnel had shelled civilian territory.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said his country’s army ”raised the flag” in the village of Madagiz.
Nagorno-Karabakh officials have said more than 150 servicemen on their side have been killed so far.
Azerbaijani authorities haven’t given details on their military casualties but said 19 civilians were killed and 55 more wounded.
Vahram Poghosyan, a spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh president, said in his Facebook page that intelligence data showed some 3,000 Azerbaijanis have died in the fighting, but did not give details.
Nagorno-Karabakh was a designated autonomous region within Azerbaijan during the Soviet era. It claimed independence from Azerbaijan in 1991, about three months before the Soviet Union’s collapse.
A full-scale war that broke out in 1992 killed an estimated 30,000 people.
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