Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Armenian attacks on Azerbaijani civilian infrastructure have caused serious damage to business entities, state enterprises across the country.

Some 160 business entities in Azerbaijan have been affected by Armenian attacks on Azerbaijan since September 27, the Ministry of Economy has reported.

This was stated during the meeting at the ministry with entrepreneurs of the Ganja and Barda region, who suffered from the military provocation of Armenia.

The entrepreneurs were received by employees of The Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development Agency of Azerbaijan (SMEDA) under the ministry and State Tax Service.

To date, the Agency has received information that as a result of Armenian provocation, 160 business entities from Ganja, Naftalan, Tartar, Fuzuli, Beylagan, Barda, Aghdam, Jabrayil and Aghjabadi regions received serious damages.

It was reported that measures are currently being taken to collect and process relevant information in order to determine the damage caused to the business.

Forty-seven civilians have been killed and 222 others have been injured since the outbreak of large-scale hostilities on September 27, after Armenia launched another attack along the line of contact, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported on October 16.

Armenian armed forces launched a large-scale operation in the front-line zone on September 27 at 6 am, shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani army from large-calibre weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibres. Armenia has been targeting Azerbaijan’s densely populated areas and infrastructure projects.

It should be noted that Armenian military provocation has so far affected many households (fields, cattle, small ruminants, etc), shopping centres, stores, catering establishments (canteens, tea stores, cafes, restaurants), bakeries, gas stations, hotels, pharmacies, hairdressers and other business facilities.

Additionally, many historical monuments in Fuzuli and Ganja regions have been seriously damaged as a result of the Armenian shelling of Azerbaijani settlements. Thus, an Orthodox Church was among the buildings damaged during Armenia’s missile attack on Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second largest city on October 11. As result of the attack, Sheikh Baba mausoleum, an architectural monument of national importance was seriously damaged. On October 4, the Armenian armed forces significantly affected Men's gymnasium in Ganja, taken under state protection. At the same time, a shell that fell near the historical site posed a serious threat to the Imamzade Sanctuary Complex.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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