Nagorno-Karabakh cathedral targeted by Azerbaijani strikes

An interior view shows Ghazanchetsots Cathedral damaged by recent shelling in Shushi in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, October 8, 2020 David Ghahramanyan / NKR InfoCenter / PAN Photo / Handout via REUTERS

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the conflict took on yet another dimension with the bombing on Thursday of Shushi Cathedral, one of the largest churches in the Armenian world.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is in its 11th day and pits the Azerbaijani forces against those of the Armenians of this secessionist province and of the Republic of Armenia.

Publicity

Read more

With our special correspondent in Yerevan,

The damage is considerable, a rocket having pierced one of the domes of the four apses of the Saint-Sauveur Ghazanchetsots cathedral.

Yet the 19th century edifice built with gray limestone is among the strongest, especially since its restoration after being damaged during the Civil War of the early 1990s.

The rocket fire this Thursday morning was probably not accidental.

Azerbaijan had openly declared that it wanted to target Shushi - Shusha in the Azeri language - sites in retaliation for the inauguration last May of the new leader, "president", of Nagorno-Karabakh Arayik Haroutiounian.

►

The more recent declaration in which the latter proposed to relocate the Nagorno-Karabakh "Parliament" to Shushi, a city considered by Azerbaijan to be "sacred", the latter housing among other mosques, had made Baku even more furious. .

The rocket fire that occurred later in the afternoon does not appear to be accidental either.

Journalists were obviously present on site to see the damage in the morning.

One of them, a Russian, was injured by this strike.

There are now several hundred dead on each side in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

► To listen and read also

 : 

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Armenia

• Azerbaijan

On the same subject

Interview

Nagorno-Karabakh: "We cannot afford more years of inaction"

Interview

Why is Turkey positioning itself on a very offensive regional activism?

Reportage

Nagorno-Karabakh: Berdzor, spared by gunfire but not by war