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Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict

Baku reports missile attack on its Mingachevir Hydro Power Plant

The security of the Mingachevir dam is among Azerbaijan’s most important national security issues

BAKU, October 11. /TASS/. The Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office said on Sunday that Armenian armed forces carried out a missile attack on the Mingachevir Hydroelectric Power Plant in Azerbaijan.

"At about 04:00 local time (3:00 Moscow time), the Armenian armed forces carried out a missile attack on a major Azerbaijani industrial city of Mingechevir, which is 100 km away from the zone of the hostilities, and the Mingachevir Hydroelectric Power Plant located there," prosecutors said in a statement.

According to the statement, all missiles were intercepted by Azerbaijan’s air defense forces.

Azerbaijan’s Mingachevir Hydroelectric Power Plant and the Mingachevir water reservoir on the Kura River are critical for the country’s power generation sector and agriculture. The security of the Mingachevir dam is among Azerbaijan’s most important national security issues. According to experts, a vast section of the country’s territory will be flooded if the dam breaks.

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.

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