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 thirty-second day of the war, October 28, the shelling of the Terter region of Azerbaijan by the Armenian occupation forces continued all night. Soon, the artillery strikes of the invaders expanded to five more border and front-line regions of Azerbaijan. The death toll by this moment from attacks by the Armenian Armed Forces reached 69 Azerbaijani civilians due to the terrorist attack in Barda committed the day before.
Even contract servicemen were refusing to go to the front to keep the occupied Azerbaijani territories under the control of Yerevan. The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry revealed the video footage of the military equipment and ammunition left by the Armenian armed forces while fleeing during the battles in the Gubadli direction.
The Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan stressed that Armenia's attempts to hit the infrastructure of the "Southern Gas Corridor" threaten the energy security of the entire region.
At about 12:00 the second terrorist attack was carried out against Barda: the invaders fired more than ten Smerch MLRS missiles with cluster warheads at the city, some fell on busy streets. 21 people were killed, over 70 were injured, including 8 children. It was emphasized in Baku that Armenia had announced its intention to organize this war crime in advance. Evidence was presented that the Smerch missiles were used in the attack.
The first to react to the second terrorist attack in Barda was the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Baku. The terrorist act was also condemned in Turkey, Tehran said the strike on Barda was a war crime. In the afternoon, artillery strikes continued on the Terter and Goranboy regions.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense drew attention to the fact that Yerevan is deliberately replicating fake news in order to divert the attention of the international community from Armenian war crimes; the fake news about the "bombing of the hospital" was exposed. The Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan revealed the statistics of the destruction of the historical heritage of the occupied lands of Karabakh and Zangezur by the occupiers.
After 15:00, it became known about the liberation of 13 more villages in the Fizuli, Jabrayil, Zangilan and Gubadli regions of Azerbaijan. Later, video footage of the counter-offensive of the Azerbaijani liberation army was published.
At the same time, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that he was ready to meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry the terrorist attack in Barda with the OSCE Minsk Group.
Tehran reiterated that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict can be settled only within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister stated that the liberated Azerbaijani-Iranian border will become the border of peace and friendship.
A rally in memory of 25 people who died in two terrorist attacks in Barda was held in Moscow in the evening. Video footage of the terrorist attack in Barda was published late in the evening. The father of the girl who died in the first terrorist attack in Barda told how it happened.
The invaders fleeing from the battlefield began to take their weapons with them, which caused anxiety in Yerevan. Yerevan didn't accept the bodies of the invaders who died in the battles - Ilham Aliyev told Interfax. The President of Azerbaijan reiterated that in order to end the hostilities, Armenia must guarantee the withdrawal of the occupation troops from the Azerbaijani land.
Late in the evening, U.S. presidential candidate Joseph Biden proposed to President Donald Trump to hold talks with Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan.
Thus, on the thirty-second day of the war, the Azerbaijani liberation army continued to de-occupy the settlements of Azerbaijan, moving from the liberated south to the north, to Lachin, Shusha, Khojavend and Khankendi. Cases of desertion in the occupation forces of Armenia became more widespread, the invaders threw heavy equipment on the battlefield and took small arms with them to Armenia. Yerevan carried out another terrorist attack against the civilian population of Azerbaijan, now in Barda, where 21 people were killed by cluster bombs.
