Armenian shelling causes arsons in border village
By Sara Rajabova
An Azerbaijani village located on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops was the scene of deadly arsons after a ceasefire violation by Armenian forces.
The Armenian armed forces fired at Gapanli village of Azerbaijan's Tartar region on June 17. As a result of constant shelling, one of the bullets hit a haystack in the yard of a village resident and caused a fire, local media reported.
The fire began to spread immediately but the firefighters of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Emergency Situations extinguished it with the help of villagers.
It should be noted that 300 haystacks were destroyed during the incident. No one was injured.
Although there were no casualties, the villagers suffered major property damage.
Armenian armed forces frequently commit large-scale arsons in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which usually lead to the flocking of various infestants and rodents from these areas to the lowland regions of the country.
In the latest violence, Armenian soldiers set fire to Bash Gervend village of Azerbaijan's Aghdam region on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
Rodents, infestants and poisonous snakes, which flock to the lowland areas of the country escaping from the fires, enter the fields and private farms massively, destroying the cultivated fields and at the same time seriously threatening the lives of people.
The arsons have caused massive loss of natural resources, flora and fauna. The fires also adversely affect the agriculture of the villages located in the frontline areas, as the Armenians deliberately set fire to the territories in the spring and summer months when crops are cultivated and harvested.
The persistent fires in the occupied territories and the protected areas along Araz River are destroying the entire plant cover. This has bitter ramifications for the environment.
To date, the territories of Agdam, Fizuli, Jabrayil, Terter and Khojavand regions, which are situated on the troops' contact line, have been set ablaze deliberately by the Armenian invaders. The fire flames encircled thousands of hectares of land controlled by the Armenians, as well as spread over other territories and considerably damaged the nature there. A total of 96,000 hectares of pastures, hayfields and greeneries as well as forest fields were destroyed and the fertile soil surface became useless due to the perpetration of arsons by the Armenian soldiers in the occupied territories.
Despite all the vandalistic acts by the Armenian invaders that damage the nature and environment of Azerbaijan, these actions have yet to spark due reaction from the international community.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.
Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.