Shelling of Stepanakert

Shelling of Stepanakert
Part of the Nagorno-Karabakh War
Location Stepanakert
Azerbaijan (de jure)
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (de facto)
Date November 1991[1] – May 9, 1992[2][3]
Target Armenian civilians
Attack type
 Bombing, shelling, artillery fire
Deaths 169 (October 1991–April 1992; according to NKR Interior Minister as quoted by Human Rights Watch)[4]
Non-fatal injuries
 Hundreds
Perpetrators Azerbaijani Armed Forces

The Shelling of Stepanakert (Armenian: Ստեփանակերտի ռմբակոծումը) was a months-long campaign of intentional bombardment of civilian targets of the city of Stepanakert,[5] the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in 1991 and 1992, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The campaign caused widespread destruction and many civilian deaths.[6]

According to reports from Human Rights Watch, both Azerbaijani and Armenian forces actively shelled and engaged in sniper attacks on each other's towns and villages.[7] HRW reported that main bases used by Azerbaijani armed forces for the bombardment of Stepanakert included the towns of Khojaly and Shusha. The indiscriminate shelling, sniper shooting and aerial attacks killed or maimed hundreds of civilians, destroyed homes, hospitals, kindergartens and other objects that were not legitimate military targets, and generally terrorized the civilian population.[8] According to Memorial Human Rights Center, the residential areas of both Stepanakert and Shushi were shelled on a regular basis with the use of artillery and rocket launchers. There were more destruction and casualties in Stepanakert than in Shusha, which could be explained by location of Stepanakert in the lowland and much higher intensity of shelling from Shusha due to Azerbaijan's capture of Soviet depots in Aghdam and other locales with more than 11,000 wagons full of rockets, including those for BM-21 MLRS.[9][10]

The indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas stopped only after the successful suppression of Azerbaijani military outposts in the nearby town of Shusha by Armenian units on May 8–9, 1992.[1][11]

Background

During the winter of 1991-92, Stepanakert was hit by artillery and aerial bombardment by Azerbaijani forces. At the same time, the Armenian forces shelled Shusha, Khojaly and other towns and villages with Azerbaijani population. In May 1992, when Helsinki Watch arrived to Stepanakert, the city had already suffered heavy destruction. On August 22–24 alone, Azerbaijani bombings had caused at least 40 civilian deaths and left 100 people wounded.

Helsinki Watch's report stated that the "Azerbaijani shelling and bombing were reckless and indiscriminate, and aimed at terrorizing and forcing out Armenian civilians. Like previous Azerbaijani attacks on Stepanakert, the shelling and bombing throughout the counter-offensive and beyond destroyed or damaged scores of homes and sometimes entire villages."[12] According to Caroline Cox, "I used to count 400 Grad missiles every day pounding in on Stepanakert."[13]

According to Memorial, civil population of both Stepanakert and Shushi suffered not only from shelling, but also from the shortage of water, food, medicines, heating and electricity. Both sides explained shelling of residential quarters by being unable to directly suppress the artillery of the enemy because of the land relief, and claimed that by shelling the towns they forced the other side to cease fire.[9]

David Atkinson, a member of the Council of Europe, reminded PACE that he visited Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s, and added that he "will never forget" the Azerbaijani bombing of Stepanakert during a report in January 25, 2005, during the PACE winter session.[14]

"Anyone could just get up with a hangover, after drinking the night before, sit behind the Grad and fire, fire, fire at Stepanakert without any aim, without any coordinates."

 —Azerbaijani soldier Azai Kerimov[15]

From a geographical standpoint the towns of Khojaly and Shushi were well-suited for Azerbaijani shelling of Stepanakert. The mainstay artillery platforms used in the bombardment, which began on January 10, 1992 and lasted for 4 months, was the Soviet built BM-21 GRAD multiple rocket launcher capable of firing 40 rockets simultaneously, a modern variant of the widely used World War II weapon, the Katyusha. The GRAD launcher was similar to the Katyusha in that it did not have a well-guided missile system and hence the location of where it would hit was difficult to determine. Essentially, GRAD is designed to deliver anti-personnel devastation on an open battlefield, while the Azerbaijani Army used it to shell civilians in a densely populated capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. Dubbed "flying telephone poles" due to their long, shaped charges, the missiles caused devastating damage to buildings including the destruction of residential houses, schools, the city's silk factory, maternity hospital and at least one kindergarten.[16]

By May 1992, Shusha was the only Azerbaijani-controlled area near Stepanakert during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, which was used to launch GRAD missiles into Stepanakerts neighborhoods.[17] Almost all of the civilian population of Karabakh was concentrated in Stepanakert after leaving due to the battle zone, and even poorly aimed bombing by Azerbaijani aircraft resulted in heavy losses of civilians.[18] Karabakh's self-defense forces retaliated, and ensued in two days of fighting, and than capturing Shusha the last Azerbaijani inhabited area in Nagorno-Karabakh, and gaining control over Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted to the end of shelling and bombardment in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.[19][20]

Daily bombardment by Azerbaijans Grad missiles and attacks on Goris and Kapan caused thousands of civilian and military deaths, and massive property destruction.[21] Bombs had been constantly directed towards Stepanakert, until the capture of Shusha, on May 8, 1992.[22]

On May 31, 1992, the Chicago Tribune wrote:[1]

“ After six months of daily bombardments by Azerbaijani missiles, the damage that is visible in this isolated city of 70,000 Armenians is frightening enough. There are jagged, blackened holes in nearly every building. There is no water, electricity, food or fuel. ”

Helsinki Watch

A delegation of members from Helsinki Watch had gone to Stepanakert for two days. Armenians had said that Stepanakert was constantly attacked by Azerbaijanis, starting around 1991, in October. The Helinski Watch members had gone around the city and had observed the widespread damage and photographed many damages to civilian areas.[23] The delegation also noticed that almost every apartment in Stepankerts western side, had been hit by shelling.[23]

Representatives of Helsinki Watch, had photographed the complete destruction of a hospital, and also school buildings in parts of the city.[23]

The Helsinki Watch concluded in their Annual Report that Azerbaijani forces had "pounded the capital of Nagorno Karabakh, Stepanakert, and other Armenian towns and villages with shells and grenades. The indiscriminate shelling and sniper shooting killed or maimed hundreds of civilians, destroyed homes, hospitals and other objects that are not legitimate military targets."[24]

Journalists' accounts

Vanora Bennett, British reporter,

Stepanakert was in a frenzy of spring-cleaning. In brilliant sunshine, tiny old women were sweeping up rubble and shifting bits of wall. The crunch of broken glass being dragged over broken pavements was the loudest sound. There were ruined buildings on all sides, and almost every house had some trace of war damage, an exposed roof, bullet holes, cracks, staring windows. There were no shops, no gas, no electricity, no phones, no post, and no cash money.[15]

Journalist Vadim Byrkin,

If I have a memory, it is the cold. When you spend the night sleeping in a bomb shelter, in a basement, and when the stove goes out before morning, then it gets terribly cold. In the morning, when you go upstairs, you don't know whether your home will be there or not.[15]

The Montreal Gazette reported,

Yesterday morning, Sukhoi-25 jets raided residential areas of Stepanakert and dropped bombs near an Armenian church, Christ the Savior, in nearby Shusha at the precise moment the divine liturgy was being said.[25]

Documentaries

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Witt, Howard (31 May 1992). "Besieged Armenians Live In Daze". Chicago Tribute. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  2. ↑ Taylor & Francis (2004). The Europa World yearbook 2004 (45. ed.). London: Europa. pp. 554–555. ISBN 9781857432541.
  3. ↑ Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia (3rd ed.). London: Europa Publications Limited. 2002. p. 130. ISBN 9781857431377.
  4. ↑ Denber, Rachel (July 1993). Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Indiscriminate Bombing and Shelling by Azerbaijani Forces in Nagorno Karabakh (PDF). Human Rights Watch/Helsinki. p. 11.
  5. ↑ Human rights and democratization in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, Volume 4; Volume 85. United States. Congress. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. p. 125.
  6. ↑ The Daily Telegraph, Azeri jets bomb capital of enclave - Aug 23, 1992
  7. ↑ Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Human Rights Watch, 1992. ISBN 1-56432-081-2, 9781564320810, p. 32
  8. ↑ "Human Rights Watch World Report - The Former Soviet Union". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 1993. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  9. 1 2 Report of Memorial Human rights center (In Russian)
  10. ↑ Группа Российских Войск в Закавказье (ГРВЗ
  11. ↑ Irredentism: ethnic conflict and international politics By Thomas Ambrosio - page 148
  12. ↑ Denber, Rachel (July 1993). Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Indiscriminate Bombing and Shelling by Azerbaijani Forces in Nagorno Karabakh (PDF). Human Rights Watch/Helsinki. p. 11.
  13. ↑ Cox's book of modern saints and martyrs By Caroline Cox, Catherine Butcher - page 100
  14. ↑ Analysis: Council Of Europe Calls For Talks Between Azerbaijan, Karabakh Leadership
  15. 1 2 3 De Waal, Thomas. Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war. p. 175.
  16. ↑ Wines, Michael (May 27, 2001). "Trying to Tell a Truce From a War". The New York Times. p. 1.8. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  17. ↑ Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic By Thomas Goltz -page 184
  18. ↑ JPRS report: Central Eurasia. Military affairs: Issue 35; Issue 35 - United States. Foreign Broadcast Information Service - page 23
  19. ↑ Conflicts in the OSCE area - Ole Berthelsen, Sven Gunnar Simonsen, International Peace Research Institute, page 12
  20. ↑ The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict: causes and implications By Michael P. Croissant - page 79
  21. ↑ Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus By Karen Dawisha, Bruce Parrott - page 82
  22. ↑ Armenia: portraits of survival and hope By Donald Earl Miller, Lorna Touryan Miller, Jerry Berndt - page 74
  23. 1 2 3 Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh By Rachel Denber, Robert K. Goldman, Helsinki Watch (Organization : U.S.) - page 34
  24. ↑ Helsinki Watch (1992). Annual Helsinki Watch report. p. 231.
  25. ↑ The global dynamics of news. Abbas Malek, Anandam P. Kavoori. p. 193.
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