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The Shelling of Stepanakert ((アルメニア語:Ստեփանակերտի ռմբակոծումը)) was a months-long campaign of intentional bombardment of civilian targets of the city of Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in 1991 and 1992, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The campaign caused widespread destruction and many civilian deaths.〔The Daily Telegraph, ''Azeri jets bomb capital of enclave'' - Aug 23, 1992〕 According to reports from Human Rights Watch, both Azerbaijani and Armenian forces actively shelled and engaged in sniper attacks on each other's towns and villages.〔Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Human Rights Watch, 1992. ISBN 1-56432-081-2, 9781564320810, p. 32〕 HRW reported that main bases used by Azerbaijani armed forces for the bombardment of Stepanakert included the towns of Khojaly and Shusha. The indiscriminate shelling, sniper shooting and aerial attacks killed or maimed hundreds of civilians, destroyed homes, hospitals, kindergartens and other objects that were not legitimate military targets, and generally terrorized the civilian population.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/WR93/Hsw-07.htm )〕 According to Memorial Human Rights Center, the residential areas of both Stepanakert and Shushi were shelled on a regular basis with the use of artillery and rocket launchers. There were more destruction and casualties in Stepanakert than in Shusha, which could be explained by location of Stepanakert in the lowland and much higher intensity of shelling from Shusha due to Azerbaijan's capture of Soviet depots in Aghdam and other locales with more than 11,000 wagons full of rockets, including those for BM-21 MLRS.〔(Report of Memorial Human rights center (In Russian) )〕〔(Группа Российских Войск в Закавказье (ГРВЗ )〕 The indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas stopped only after the successful suppression of Azerbaijani military outposts in the nearby town of Shusha by Armenian units on May 8–9, 1992.〔〔Irredentism: ethnic conflict and international politics By Thomas Ambrosio - page 148〕 ==Background== During the winter of 1991-92, Stepanakert was hit by artillery and aerial bombardment by Azerbaijani forces. At the same time, the Armenian forces shelled Shusha, Khojaly and other towns and villages with Azerbaijani population. In May 1992, when Helsinki Watch arrived to Stepanakert, the city had already suffered heavy destruction. On August 22–24 alone, Azerbaijani bombings had caused at least 40 civilian deaths and left 100 people wounded. Helsinki Watch's report stated that the "Azerbaijani shelling and bombing were reckless and indiscriminate, and aimed at terrorizing and forcing out Armenian civilians. Like previous Azerbaijani attacks on Stepanakert, the shelling and bombing throughout the counter-offensive and beyond destroyed or damaged scores of homes and sometimes entire villages." According to Caroline Cox, "I used to count 400 Grad missiles every day pounding in on Stepanakert."〔Cox's book of modern saints and martyrs By Caroline Cox, Catherine Butcher - page 100〕 According to Memorial, civil population of both Stepanakert and Shushi suffered not only from shelling, but also from the shortage of water, food, medicines, heating and electricity. Both sides explained shelling of residential quarters by being unable to directly suppress the artillery of the enemy because of the land relief, and claimed that by shelling the towns they forced the other side to cease fire.〔 David Atkinson, a member of the Council of Europe, reminded PACE that he visited Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s, and added that he "will never forget" the Azerbaijani bombing of Stepanakert during a report in January 25, 2005, during the PACE winter session.〔(Analysis: Council Of Europe Calls For Talks Between Azerbaijan, Karabakh Leadership )〕 From a geographical standpoint the towns of Khojaly and Shushi were well-suited for Azerbaijani shelling of Stepanakert. The mainstay artillery platforms used in the bombardment, which began on January 10, 1992 and lasted for 4 months, was the Soviet built BM-21 GRAD multiple rocket launcher capable of firing 40 rockets simultaneously, a modern variant of the widely used World War II weapon, the Katyusha. The GRAD launcher was similar to the Katyusha in that it did not have a well-guided missile system and hence the location of where it would hit was difficult to determine. Essentially, GRAD is designed to deliver anti-personnel devastation on an open battlefield, while the Azerbaijani Army used it to shell civilians in a densely populated capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. Dubbed "flying telephone poles" due to their long, shaped charges, the missiles caused devastating damage to buildings including the destruction of residential houses, schools, the city's silk factory, maternity hospital and at least one kindergarten. By May 1992, Shusha was the only Azerbaijani-controlled area near Stepanakert during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, which was used to launch GRAD missiles into Stepanakerts neighborhoods.〔Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic By Thomas Goltz -page 184〕 Almost all of the civilian population of Karabakh was concentrated in Stepanakert after leaving due to the battle zone, and even poorly aimed bombing by Azerbaijani aircraft resulted in heavy losses of civilians.〔JPRS report: Central Eurasia. Military affairs: Issue 35; Issue 35 - United States. Foreign Broadcast Information Service - page 23〕 Karabakh's self-defense forces retaliated, and ensued in two days of fighting, and than capturing Shusha the last Azerbaijani inhabited area in Nagorno-Karabakh, and gaining control over Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted to the end of shelling and bombardment in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.〔Conflicts in the OSCE area - Ole Berthelsen, Sven Gunnar Simonsen, International Peace Research Institute, page 12〕〔The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict: causes and implications By Michael P. Croissant - page 79〕 Daily bombardment by Azerbaijans Grad missiles and attacks on Goris and Kapan caused thousands of civilian and military deaths, and massive property destruction.〔Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus By Karen Dawisha, Bruce Parrott - page 82〕 Bombs had been constantly directed towards Stepanakert, until the capture of Shusha, on May 8, 1992.〔Armenia: portraits of survival and hope By Donald Earl Miller, Lorna Touryan Miller, Jerry Berndt - page 74〕 On May 31, 1992, the ''Chicago Tribune'' wrote: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shelling of Stepanakert」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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