Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Armenia, Azerbaijan clash as Iran works on peace plan
Scores killed in conflict between former Soviet territories
YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia accused Azerbaijan of firing missiles into the capital of the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, while Azerbaijan said several of its towns and its second-largest city were attacked.
Iran, which borders both countries, said it was working on a peace plan for the decades-old conflict, which reignited last month and has killed scores of people on both sides.
Th e region of Na - gorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Armenian military officials reported missile strikes in the territorial capital of Stepanakert, which came under intense attacks all weekend. Residents told the Russian state RIA Novosti news agency that parts of the city were suffering shortages of electricity and gas after the strikes.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, in turn, accused Armenian forces of shelling the towns of Tartar, Barda and Beylagan. Ganja, the country’s second-largest city far outside the conflict zone, also was “under fire,” officials said.
Hikmet Hajiyev, aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, tweeted that Armenian forces attacked “densely populated civilian areas” in Ganja, Barda, Beylagan and other towns “with missiles and rockets.”
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed allegations of attacks being launched from Armenia’s territory as a “disinformation campaign” by Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh officials didn’t comment on the accusations, but warned both Sunday and Monday that the territory’s forces would target military facilities in Azerbaijani cities in response to strikes on Stepanakert.
The fighting began Sept. 27 and has killed dozens, marking the biggest escalation in the conflict. Both sides have accused each other of expanding the hostilities beyond Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to Nagorno- Karabakh officials, about 220 servicemen on their side have died in the clashes since then. The staterun Armenian Unified Infocenter said 21 civilians have been killed in the region and 82 wounded.
Azerbaijani authorities haven’t given details about military casualties, but said 25 civilians were killed and 127 wounded.
Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of targeting civilians and have reported damage to nonmilitary infrastructure.
Aliyev said his troops “liberated” several more villages in the Jabrayil region. A similar report about the town of Jabrayil and its surrounding villages Sunday was denied by Nagorno-Karabakh officials.
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.
By the time the war ended in 1994, Armenian forces held not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also substantial areas outside the territory’s borders, like the Jabrayil region where Azerbaijan claimed to have taken a town and several villages.
Aliyev has repeatedly said Armenia’s withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh is the sole condition to end the fighting.
The Foreign Ministry of Iran, which has nearly 470 miles of border with Azerbaijan and a short border with Armenia, said it is working on a peace plan.
Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh did not elaborate but said Iran is talking to all related parties.
“Iran has prepared a plan with a specific framework containing details after consultations with both sides of the dispute, Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as regional states and neighbors, and will pursue this plan,” he said.