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The bombardment of Martakert (Armenian: Մարտակերտի ռմբակոծություն) was the bombardment of the cities, towns, and villages in the Martakert Province, Nagorno-Karabakh of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh (de jure as part of Azerbaijan). It was carried out by Azerbaijani Armed Forces during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The city Martakert, along with the de facto capital Stepanakert, were badly damaged as a result of shelling.

Martakert Military Hospital

Three unlawful attacks on medical facilities by Azerbaijani forces during the six-week armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh have come to light in recent Human Rights Watch research in the region. Human Rights Watch documented multiple unlawful strikes on a public hospital in Martakert in September through November 2020, and an unlawful strike on a military hospital in the town’s outskirts in October. The hospitals were very close to the front lines at the time. The weapon used by Azerbaijani forces against the military hospital – a satellite-guided variant of an Israeli-supplied rocket artillery system called LAR-160 – suggests that the strike was intentional. The strikes on the public hospital, including with Grad rockets and cluster munitions, appeared indiscriminate. The attacks damaged both hospitals and impeded medical work, but no one was wounded or killed in the attacks. Human Rights Watch also documented a deliberate attack on September 28, apparently by Azerbaijani forces, on an Armenian military ambulance, in which assailants shot and killed a military doctor. Armenian authorities told Human Watch that at least nine medical facilities were damaged in Stepanakert, and in the Martakert, Martuni, and Askeran districts of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani rocket artillery hit a military hospital in Aghabekalanj, a village just southwest of Martakert city, along the main road, in an apparently deliberate strike on October 14, 2020. Before being hit, the hospital had been providing first aid to the wounded – as many as 130 a day, hospital staff told Human Rights Watch – some of whom were then transported to Stepanakert for further treatment. The nearest military installation is 1.5 kilometers to the south, along the main road. Satellite imagery taken on October 8 shows that one of the installation’s buildings had been hit, damaging its roof. The satellite imagery also shows military positions that pre-date the outbreak of hostilities, fewer than 350 meters southwest of the hospital. Earthen berms are also visible about 150 meters north of the hospital. As Azerbaijani forces frequently shelled Martakert and surrounding areas during the conflict, patients were treated in the two-story hospital’s reinforced basement, where medical staff also slept. Human Rights Watch visited the hospital in November and found that the attack had caused significant damage. A small structure by the gate was largely destroyed, and the medical workers’ housing in the back was severely damaged. The outer walls of the main building showed blast and fragmentation damage, and the windows were shattered. In the yard, there were remnants of several burned vehicles, too charred to identify. The staff said that most were military ambulances. Sasha Baghiryan, a 63-year-old hospital maintenance worker, and Hayk Aghajanyan, a 20-year-old military serviceman who had been assigned to the hospital to help carry the wounded and run errands for medical workers, said the attack took place between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m. Satellite imagery shows that the attack took place between 11:48 a.m. local time, on October 14, and 11:54 a.m. local time, on October 15. At the time of the attack, both men were in the basement, where medical workers were performing surgery on three wounded servicemen. Baghiryan and Aghajanyan said that they heard four separate explosions as the rockets hit one after the other. Aghajanyan showed Human Rights Watch four impact craters: two in the yard close to the fence, several meters apart; one on the road near the gate; and one outside the rear of the hospital, near the medical workers’ housing. Human Rights Watch found numerous munition fragments at the impact sites. An examination of the impact sites, weapon remnants, and the proximity of the four points of impact suggest that the strike was carried out by the satellite-guided variant of an Israeli-supplied rocket artillery system called LAR-160, using EXTRA rockets. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute lists the transfer of LAR-160 launchers and EXTRA rockets from Israel to Azerbaijan in 2005-2006. An EXTRA rocket is equipped with a unitary warhead containing 120 kilograms of explosives, and its manufacturer claims that accuracy of less than 10-meters (circular-error-probable) can be achieved by the rocket’s satellite guidance capability. In light of the preexisting military positions that were about 350 meters from the hospital, and the constant, heavy shelling of the area near the hospital, the October 14 strike may have been indiscriminate. However, the accuracy of the LAR-160 gives a basis to conclude that the strike may have been deliberate. The hospital roof was not marked with a red cross to signify that it was a medical facility, but the then-ombudsperson for Nagorno-Karabakh told Human Rights Watch that the facility was well known as a hospital, had never been used for any other purposes, and that the International Committee of the Red Cross had the hospital’s coordinates. The front of the admissions building was marked with a large Bowl of Hygieia, a cup with a snake, a pharmacy and medical symbol. According to hospital staff, ambulances were coming and going around the clock.

Martakert Public Hospital

Martakert’s public hospital, the R. Bazyan District Medical Association, is on the northern end of Sakharov Street, which suffered extensive shelling damage during the six-week war. At the southern end of Sakharov Street, 800 meters from the hospital, there is a military installation, with military positions and military vehicles. A local resident said that he and his battalion were based there throughout the hostilities. When a Human Rights Watch researcher examined the site in November, it had been clearly damaged by shelling. Another military installation that, as of October 8, had visible activity, is about 250 meters from the hospital. A satellite image taken at 11:54 a.m. local time on September 27, 2020, shows new damage to at least five buildings on the north edge of this base, indicating that the site was struck several times hours after the hostilities began. Due to intense shelling in the area from the first day of hostilities, on October 4 the hospital staff were evacuated to a village some thirty km away and the hospital became a military medical triage center for wounded Armenian forces. A hospital custodian who regularly checked the facilities after the civilian evacuation said the hospital was hit several times on various days during the six weeks of fighting. In the October 8 satellite imagery, several impact craters are also visible in the immediate vicinity of the military installation that is 250 meters from the hospital. The October 6 video also shows a large impact crater on the main road, approximately 210 meters west of the hospital. Three witnesses said most of the damage to the hospital was inflicted on November 9, when shelling in the area was particularly heavy. Satellite imagery shows that the military installation 250 meters from the hospital was also struck sometime between the early afternoon on November 9 and the morning of November 10. Human Rights Watch visited the hospital on November 24 and noted significant blast and fragmentation damage to the hospital and the adjacent outpatient clinic. Numerous munition fragments were seen at impact sites in the hospital yard, in particular fragments of Grads and cluster munitions carried by LAR-160 rockets. A staff surgeon at the hospital, Dr. Tigran Arzumanyan, and a staff pediatrician, Dr. Khachatur Melikyan, said that the hospital’s roof was also damaged in several places. The two doctors said that when the shelling began on September 27, staff moved all 39 patients, including children and mothers with newborn babies, to the basement. Those whose health allowed it were discharged that day, and the rest were promptly evacuated to Stepanakert, 46 kilometers away. They said that during the first day of hostilities the hospital also provided first aid to 80 wounded military servicemen, 78 of them with fragmentation wounds, and several wounded civilians. Several days into the hostilities, the hospital staff were evacuated to Chdlran village, where they worked as a triage brigade for the wounded. Due to the sheer number of strikes on the hospital, Human Rights Watch was not in a position to match particular strikes with specific damage. But neither of the explosive weapons that Azerbaijani forces used in these strikes – Grads and cluster munitions – can be targeted with enough accuracy to have avoided damaging civilian structures in the area. Explosive weapons with wide-area effects may have a large destructive radius, be inherently inaccurate, or deliver multiple munitions at the same time, causing high civilian loss if used in populated areas. Often a single weapon will fall into two of these categories. Grads are unguided rockets that cannot be targeted accurately and are often fired in salvos from multi-barrel rocket launchers to saturate a wide area. Based on the examination of the fragments and the impact points, Human Rights Watch concluded that Azerbaijani forces used “enhanced fragmentation” Grads, which have a layer of steel spheres imbedded between the explosive substance and the skin of the rocket to maximize casualty-producing effect. Cluster munitions, in this case carried by LAR-160 rockets – Human Rights Watch found two rocket bodies in the yard, close to one of the impact points – are an inherently indiscriminate weapon banned by an international treaty. So, their use in populated areas violates the laws-of-war prohibition against indiscriminate attacks. They typically open in the air, dispersing multiple bomblets or submunitions over a wide area, putting anyone in the area at the time of attack, whether combatants or civilians, at risk of death or injury. Many of the submunitions do not explode on contact, but remain armed, becoming de facto landmines. The front entrance to the public hospital in Martakert, which suffered significant damage as a result of multiple strikes by Azerbaijani forces between September and November 2020. Cluster munitions are international banned by a multilateral treaty because they are inherently indiscriminate.

Background

The clashes are part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh with an ethnic Armenian majority. The region is a de jure part of Azerbaijan, but is de facto held by the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, which is supported by Armenia. The region has been historically inhabited and governed by ethnic Armenians. In 1921, Stalin made Nagorno-Karabakh an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, against the will of its majority ethnic Armenian population. Ethnic violence began in the late 1980s, and exploded into a full war following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The War ended with a ceasefire in 1994, with the Republic of Artsakh controlling most of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as well as the surrounding districts of Agdam, Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Kalbajar, Qubadli, Lachin and Zangilan of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh held an independence referendum in 1991, voting to secede from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan did not recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh and the war continued until the 1994 ceasefire.

Timeline

See also

• 2020 bombardment of Stepanakert
• 2020 bombardment of Martuni

References

1. Մարտակերտը ռմբակոծության է ենթարկվել
2. "Unlawful Attacks on Medical Facilities and Personnel in Nagorno-Karabakh". www.hrw.org. Human Rights Watch. 26 February 2021.
3. Ardillier-Carras, Françoise (2006). Sud-Caucase: conflit du Karabagh et nettoyage ethnique [South Caucasus: Karabakh conflict and ethnic cleansing] (in French). pp. 409–432.
4. "UNHCR publication for CIS Conference (Displacement in the CIS) – Conflicts in the Caucasus". United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
5. Yamskov, A. N. (1991). Ethnic Conflict in the Transcausasus: The Case of Nagorno-Karabakh. Vol. 20. p. 659. {{cite book}}: |periodical= ignored (help)
6. Hambardzumyan, Viktor (1978). Լեռնային Ղարաբաղի Ինքնավար Մարզ (ԼՂԻՄ) [Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO)] (in Armenian). Vol. 4. Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. p. 576.
7. "Nagorno-Karabakh profile". BBC News. 2016-04-06. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
8. Toal, Gerard; O’Loughlin, John; Bakke, Kristin M. "Nagorno-Karabakh: what do residents of the contested territory want for their future?". The Conversation. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
9. "Military occupation of Azerbaijan by Armenia". Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
10. "Karabakh After the War". www.iwpr.net. Institute for War and Peace Reporting. 17 December 2020.
11. Christophe Petit Tesson (5 April 2021). "Amid the scars of the 2020 war, Nagorno-Karabakh tries to heal". www.independent.co.uk. The Independent.
12. "Azerbaijan/Armenia: Scores of civilians killed by indiscriminate use of weapons in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh". www.amnesty.org. Amnesty International. 14 January 2021.
13. "Unlawful Attacks on Medical Facilities and Personnel in Nagorno-Karabakh". www.hrw.org. Human Rights Watch. 26 February 2021.

External links