Azerbaijan announced on Sunday, November 8, that its forces have occupied the strategically important city of Shushan in the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region. Šuša is located near the regional capital Stepanakert. Azerbaijanis have intensified their offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh in recent days, so there does not seem to be a realistic prospect of a ceasefire in the near future.
IN SHORT:
- The capital of Azerbaijan had a festive atmosphere on Sunday.
- This is due to the President’s announcement of the occupation of Shushu.
- Aliyev warns: Azerbaijani forces will not stop at what has been achieved.
- Armenia denies that Shusha fell into the hands of Azerbaijanis.
- Armenian Ministry of Defense: Shushan continues “brutal fighting”.
Azerbaijan claims to have conquered a strategically important city in Nagorno-KarabakhUldis Ķezberis00:00 / 02:10
–The streets of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, had a festive atmosphere on Sunday. The cars were trumpeting loudly, but people with national flags turned out of them. Passers-by praised.
The celebrations began after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that the country’s troops had occupied the Shushan town of Armenian-ruled Nagorno-Karabakh. He said that the “liberation” of Shushan enters the history of the Azerbaijani people. Aliyev also warned that Azerbaijani forces would not stop there.
Meanwhile, Armenia, which supports the leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh, denied that Shusha had fallen into the hands of Azerbaijanis. The Armenian Ministry of Defense claims that Shushan continues its “brutal fighting”.
Susha, with a population of about 4,000, is strategically important because it is located in the mountains only 15 kilometers from the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, and is accompanied by a road connecting the breakaway region with Armenia.
Shushai plays an important role in Azerbaijani and Armenian culture. Before the Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s, the majority of the city’s population was Azerbaijani. For Armenians, Shushah is important because it houses the Cathedral of the Holy Savior, which is a significant center of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Armed clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian-backed forces have been going on in Nagorno-Karabakh for six weeks now. They have been considered the most serious fighting since 1994, when Armenia and Azerbaijan ended a six-year war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is not clear how many people have died since September 27, when intense fighting resumed. Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership reports that nearly 1,200 soldiers and dozens of civilians have died in the fighting. Azerbaijan claims that more than 80 civilians have been killed on its side.
So far, three ceasefires have been concluded, but none of them lasted more than a few hours.
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