Azerbaijani journalists come under Armenian fire

Armenian soldiers have targeted Azerbaijani journalists reporting on attacks against civilians in the city of Tartar, Anadolu has reported. The journalists were recording video footage of a school hit by the Armenian military in the village of Duverli when the attack took place.

Azerbaijan state-owned AZTV war correspondent Elnur Tofig told Anadolu that following the attack, the journalists returned to downtown Tartar with the injured. “Thankfully we are OK,” said Tofig. “We always mention attacks targeting civilians and settlements but today we became the news as we were reporting it.”

On 1 October, two French reporters for Le Monde and two Armenian journalists were injured in Nagorno-Karabakh, where heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces this week marked the biggest escalation in many years in the decades-old conflict. Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said that they were taken to hospital, and accused Azerbaijan of bombarding the Martuni region, in the eastern part of the disputed territory.

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According to the Azerbaijan government, the Armenian army has violated a recently established ceasefire by attacking Azerbaijani cities, including Tartar and Ganja. It pointed out that 43 civilians were killed and 206 others injured between 27 September and 14 October.

The fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the worst since a 1991-94 war over the territory that broke out as the Soviet Union collapsed, and killed about 30,000 people. It is being watched closely abroad, partly because of its proximity to Azeri energy pipelines to Europe and partly because of fears that Russia and Turkey could be drawn in.