Azerbaijan, Baku, 8 May/corr. Trend I.Alizade / Today is the 16th anniversary of Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijan's city of Shusha. On 8 May 1992 the Armenian troops carried out a military operation occupying Shusha. The artillery shots at the city continued up to 5:00 in the morning. After this, the Armenian soldiers assaulted against Shusha from three sides.
Some 248 historical facilities, eight museums, one photo gallery, one museum, eight music schools, tens of cultural facilities lie under Armenian occupation in Shusha.
Several hours before the assault to Shusha, through mediation of the Head of Iran, the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia signed an agreement in Tehran regarding peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
During Shusha's occupation, hundreds of peaceful people died, nearly 60 citizens, including women and children, were taken prisoners and become missing people. Most of them have not been released yet. Nearly 22,000 people became internally displaced persons.
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
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