YEREVAN, October 8. /TASS/. Several journalists sustained wounds in the Azerbaijani army’s shelling of the Ghazanchetsots Holy Savior Cathedral in the town of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh and the condition of a Russian reporter is serious, Head of the Armenian Government’s Information Center Hovannes Movsisyan wrote on his Facebook on Thursday.
"Several journalists sustained wounds in Shushi. We have received preliminary data from Stepanakert that the condition of the Russian journalist is serious and he is now undergoing surgery," he wrote.
This is not the first case when journalists are wounded since the escalation of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. In particular, on October 1, a group of journalists came under the Azerbaijani army’s artillery fire in the town of Martuni in Karabakh. As a result, three journalists, including a reporter of the French newspaper Le Monde and a cameraman, were wounded in the shelling.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.