Armenia attacked Azerbaijan's second largest city

On October 17, 2020 around 1:00 AM (Oct. 16, 2:00 PM PDT), the City of Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second largest city, came under 2 missile attacks by Armenia. Entire neighborhood in the city was destroyed as a result of this treacherous and cowardly attack. According to initial official reports, 13 civilians, including children, were killed and more than 50 were wounded. The ballistic SCUD missiles were fired from the territory of Armenia. It is a deliberate and indiscriminate missile attack against civilians. It is a war crime and an act of state-sponsored terrorism perpetrated by Armenia.

The City of Ganja is not located in the conflict area. It is 100 km far from the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. This is the third attack against Ganja. In the last missile attack, four days ago, 10 civilians were killed and 33 were wounded.

This is the continuation of Armenia’s new war of aggression and occupation against Azerbaijan. Armenia continues to bomb Azerbaijan’s major cities and critical energy infrastructure using large caliber weapons and ballistic missiles. As a result, 60 Azerbaijani civilians, including children and elderly, have been killed and over 270 Azerbaijani civilians have been injured. More than 2,000 houses and civilian objects were either destroyed or damaged.

In the early 1990s, Armenia illegally invaded and occupied 20% of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized sovereign territory. As a result of this invasion, 800,000 Azerbaijanis were forced to flee their ancestral homes in the occupied regions, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts.

The United Nations and the United States condemned this illegal occupation and demanded the Armenian forces to withdraw from Azerbaijan. Armenia refused to comply and has kept the territories of Azerbaijan under its illegal military occupation, not allowing 800,000 Azerbaijanis to return to their homes.

Azerbaijan wants peace. In order to achieve a peaceful resolution of the conflict, Armenia must withdraw its armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as demanded by the UN, and allow forcibly displaced Azerbaijanis to return to their homes. Then the Azerbaijanis and Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will build a prosperous future together, living in peace again as they did so for many centuries.