Battle for Nagorno-Karabakh’s city of Shushi continues – Armenian defense ministry

YEREVAN, November 8. /TASS/. The battle for the Nagorno-Karabakh city of Shushi continues on the outskirts of the city and on the roads leading up to it, Armenian Defense Ministry Spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said during a briefing on Sunday.

“Over the whole day, fighting has been underway for Shushi, which continue to this moment, but not as violently as during the night and during the day,” he said. “The enemy wanted to breach the defenses and help its units near Shushi. However, they were defeated and fled,” the spokesman stated.

He added that the Azerbaijani army had advanced near the city of Martuni, however, the defense army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic led a successful counterattack, forcing the Azerbaijani troops to retreat.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians. Hostilities in the region continue despite the previously reached ceasefire agreements.

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs – Russia, France and the United States.