ARMENIAN’S ATTACKS ON AZERBAIJANI SETTLEMENTS

GANJA MİSSİLE ATTACKS

The Ganja missile attacks comprise four separate missile attacks on the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan in October 2020, during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

The first attack took place on 4 October, killing one civilian and wounding over 30; it was one of the first serious attacks on civilians in the conflict outside the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The second attack occurred on 8 October; no casualties were reported. The third attack happened on 11 October.

According to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, at least seven people died and 33 were injured, including children. A mother and her 16-month-old daughter have been buried in the same grave after a missile attack on the Azerbaijani city of Ganja that killed at least 13 civilians, as fighting intensifies over the disputed of Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Zuleykha Shahnazarova and her daughter Madina Shahnazarli were killed overnight on Saturday, along with the father of the family, Royal Shahnazarov.

The couple’s other daughter, three-year-old Khadija Shahnazarli, survived the attack and was being treated in a hospital in the nearby city of Barda.

Azerbaijan accused Armenia of being behind the missile attack on its second-largest city, which also wounded dozens of sleeping people and destroyed a row of homes.

Armenia denied the allegation and in turn accused Azerbaijan of continued shelling on Stepanakert, the main city of Nagorno-Karabakh. It said the type of missile it was accused of firing does not have the range to reach Ganja.

The attack was one of the first major violations of the humanitarian ceasefire, signed a day earlier, to attempt to halt the conflict. The fourth attack occurred on 17 October. According to initial reports, fifteen civilians were killed and fifty-five injured in the attack. In addition to the loss of human life, infrastructure was also destroyed, including apartment blocks and other buildings, and vehicles.

 

Azerbaijan accused Armenia of the attacks, but Armenia denied any responsibility; the Artsakh Defence Army admitted responsibility for the first attack. The Azerbaijani government described the third attack "an act of genocide" and retaliated with a surgical strike on operational-tactical missile systems in the Artsakh-controlled Kalbajar District.

 

BARDA MISSILE ATTACKS

The 2020 Barda missile attacks was a series of two air attacks on the city of Barda in Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Both attacks involved BM-30 Smerch missiles and resulted in 26 civilian deaths, making it the deadliest attack throughout the 2020 war.

The first attack took place on 27 October, killing 5 civilians and wounding 13 more. The next day, on 28 October, several missiles struck Barda, killing 21 civilians, including a Red Crescent volunteer, and wounding 60 more. It was the deadliest attack on civilians and the worst civilian death toll during the conflict.

Azerbaijan accused Armenia of the attacks and stated that cluster munitions had been used against civilians. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International verified the use of cluster munition by Armenia, adding that the "firing of cluster munitions into civilian areas is cruel and reckless, and causes untold death, injury and misery." Armenia denied any responsibility, while the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh admitted responsibility for the attacks but stated that it had targeted military facilities.

 

Baby killed

On Tuesday, four civilians including a toddler were reported dead in an Armenian missile strike on a village in Barda, but Yerevan denied carrying out that attack as well.

"In violation of humanitarian ceasefire and in order to compensate their sustained military losses, Armenia resorts to war crimes of killing civilians," Hajiyev said in English on Twitter.

MINGACHEVIR ATTACKS

Mingechevir is home to a reservoir and the main power plant. Armenian officials have identified the water reservoir in Mingachevir as a military target that may be hit. Over the last 30 years, military officials in Armenia and a self-proclaimed separatist regime established illegally in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region have repeatedly threatened to blow up the Mingachevir dam as part of attacks on civilian infrastructure in Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office said 11 October that Armenian armed forces had carried out a missile attack on the Mingachevir Hydroelectric Power Plant in Azerbaijan. "At about 04:00 local time (3:00 Moscow time), the Armenian armed forces carried out a missile attack on a major Azerbaijani industrial city of Mingechevir, which is 100 km away from the zone of the hostilities, and the Mingachevir Hydroelectric Power Plant located there," the prosecutors said. According to the statement, all missiles were intercepted by Azerbaijan’s air defense forces.

Azerbaijan’s Mingachevir Hydroelectric Power Plant and the Mingachevir water reservoir on the Kura River are critical for the country’s power generation sector and agriculture. The security of the Mingachevir dam is among Azerbaijan’s most important national security issues. According to experts, a vast section of the country’s territory will be flooded if the dam breaks.

An estimated 1.3 million people in Azerbaijan have been affected by shelling in a number of locations. Missiles fired toward the city of Mingecevir have landed close to the city’s hospital, town centre, and strategically important hydroelectric plant, which supplies electricity to the whole country. Damage to the dam could cause extensive flooding across 14 Azeri cities.