Exactly a year ago, on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan's Patriotic War began. On that day, Armenia's occupying forces subjected the positions of the armed forces of Azerbaijan along the front line and the adjacent populated areas in Azerbaijan to intensive fire with the use of large-calibre weapons, artillery and mortars. Baku decided to launch a counter-offensive operation to ensure the safety of the civilian population. Vestnik Kavkaza offers its readers to follow the events of the 44 days of Azerbaijan's Patriotic War as they were covered a year ago.
On the seventeenth day of the war, October 13, the Armenian Armed Forces continued shelling the front-line Azerbaijani settlements all night, as well as re-occupying the lands in the direction of Hadrut and the villages of Talish and Sugovushan. Since the beginning of the war, 42 civilians of Azerbaijan have been killed under shelling by Armenian troops, another 206 have been injured, and 37 schools have been destroyed.
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs held talks with the Armenian Foreign Minister in Moscow. Patriarch Kirill called on Baku and Yerevan to extend the ceasefire and hold peace talks. The International Committee of the Red Cross also expressed hope for the observance of the ceasefire, later the head of the U.S. State Department did the same.
The Swiss ambassador to Azerbaijan testified to the fact of the Ganja terrorist attack, in which ten people died, and three children lost both parents. The terrorist attack in Ganja was reported on the BBC. Turkey stressed that the terrorist attack in Ganja is a crime against humanity.
At the same time, the OSCE Minsk Group, after holding negotiations with the Armenian Foreign Minister, only called on to observe a ceasefire, without touching on the issue of the Armenian Armed Forces' strike with medium-range missiles at the Azerbaijani city of Ganja, located 60 km from the front. The World Council of Churches has also called for an end to the fighting. The action "Karabakh is Azerbaijan!" was held in Houston.
The WHO drew attention to the fact that the hostilities in the occupation zone contribute to the spread of the coronavirus.
After 19:00, the first video footage of the liberated village of Hadrut was published. The Baku Armenians called on Yerevan to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan.
Thus, on the seventeenth day of the war, the Azerbaijani liberation army continued preparations for the assault on Fuzuli and access to the Khudaferin reservoir for further advancement to the southern section of the border with Armenia. At the diplomatic level, the mediators did not react to the terrorist attack in Ganja organized by Armenia and only called for the observance of the ceasefire, without planning to bring Yerevan to justice for violations of the ceasefire.
