next fighting between azerbaijan and
armenia over the disputed territory of
nagorno-karabakh is in its ninth day
both sides have accused each other of
attacking civilian areas
and the casualties are going up here's
the latest video
from the region this was released by
azerbaijan's defense force
inside the town of talish in the goron
karabakh azeri soldiers claimed to have
taken
control of seven villages that were held
by armenians
and he can um see there are soldiers
carrying the azerbaijan flag now
nagorno-karabakh is an enclave inside
azerbaijan
but it's run by ethnic armenians armenia
and azerbaijan
actually fought a war over the region in
the late 80s and
90s ending in a ceasefire in 1994.
crucially no peace treaty was signed so
this region
is very much under dispute the conflict
escalated over the weekend
this is stefano cut the capital of
nagorno-karabakh coming
under attack we're told there were heavy
casualties
and that civilians have been bussed out
of the city
now this footage released by armenia's
ministry of defense gives you
a better sense of the destruction there
local media say the city
has been left with no electricity the
conflict has escalated outside the
region
into azerbaijan's second biggest city
ganja
as you can hear there was heavy shelling
in the city on sunday
um cities home to 330 000 people
now nagorno-karabakh authorities claim
to have struck a
military airport although azerbaijan
disputes that
well hours after that attack
azerbaijan's president went on national
television
with this warning
azerbaijan will not allow anyone to
conquer nagorno-karabakh
it is azeri territory we must return and
we will return
my last condition is that we be given a
schedule
for the withdrawal of the armenian armed
forces from the occupied territories
well for the latest on the ground here's
jonah fisher in armenia's
capital yerevan across the contact line
the second biggest city in azerbaijan
ganja has we are told been
under fire today it was also attacked at
the weekend
we were told then by the armenians that
they were attacking
a military airport but it does appear
like some of that shelling
has hit civilian areas this conflict
is now in its uh ninth day there's very
little sign
that it's about to come to the end the
armenians would like there to be
a ceasefire and would like there to be
talks but from the
uh azeri the azerbaijani side has come a
very bellicose
message from president uh alief
effectively saying that they would only
stop
fighting uh when uh when uh armenian
armenian forces have withdrawn from
nagorno-karabakh and that sovereignty
has been uh returned uh to azerbaijan
well there's concern about the use of
more destructive weaponry in the
conflict we saw evidence of that in joan
officials report
from uh steppanakert over the weekend
here's a bit of that
this first week of war has been marked
by azerbaijan's use of military drones
striking at will nearly three decades
after losing nagorno-karabakh
the azeri's appear intent on claiming it
back
this soldier is warning that drones have
been spotted
and shortly afterwards there's an
explosion nearby
everybody is scrambling to come in here
a real reminder as they were fleeing as
why
this place is
increasingly dangerous for people under
attack
day and night and for a little more
detail we also spotted this jerusalem
post
article the headline missiles rockets
and drones define
azerbaijan armenia conflict it has a
detailed and extensive list
of military losses on both sides
including more than a hundred drones
hundreds of armored vehicles and
hundreds of artillery systems
and specific uh referenced uh to this
it's a
well frankly bizarre music video
released by azerbaijan's
military last week which it claims to be
evidence
of its drone warfare um you can see four
trucks there
you can take a little listen
[Music]
yeah trucks there were 36 capsules
capsules for launching drones um
in that slightly strange video there
right let's try and
uh explain all this really um shashank
joshi is the defense editor for the
economist
um and we can speak live thanks so much
for coming on the program
so we'll park the slightly strange
nature of that uh
video there but on the more serious
matter of the weapons
involved here what's being used on
either side of this conflict
the launchers that you mentioned are not
just any old drones
those are harop drones which are a
specific kind of loitering munition
effectively think of a cross between a
kamikaze drone
and a very long-legged missile that can
fly around the battlefield for hours
looking for things to hit on its own and
then plow into them without any kind of
human intervention
uh it's an israeli-made system that
azerbaijan has had for a while
uh and in fact it used it for the first
time we think four years ago in 2016
when there was a an episode when a harop
munition
plowed into a armenian bus and they've
almost certainly been used this time
around again
so it's interesting even in that music
video which is effectively propaganda
we see some of the most cutting-edge
military systems that are being used
anywhere on the planet well given that
frankly slightly
uh ominous and and scary description you
gave there of the
of the weaponry involved how worried how
concerned are you
about the scale of this conflict we saw
some of the damage
being done there already in joan
officials report
i think anyone has to be concerned when
you have a combination of very advanced
systems strong nationalist passions at
play
and also very old-fashioned means of
destruction that are very unhigh tech
but still involve very bad loss of life
shelling of civilian areas
uh soviet era rocket systems um those
are those are deeply troubling
but i think what this what the real
issue here is not the scale
of destruction it's i think what we are
seeing is
a reminder of both the old and the new
ways of conflict that is
uh artillery rockets machine guns
trenches infantry fire
but also loitering munitions of the kind
that i mentioned
uh and i think the the the single
platform that has been
most effective uh for azerbaijan has
been a turkish-made
drone system um that is uh has
effectively
decimated armenian armored systems
artillery and air defense
um and you know it's not a fancy
warplane it's not a fancy
uh missile it's a it's a two three
million dollar drone that turkey
is operating all over the region and
that is probably what has called
caused more military destruction on the
battlefield that you're seeing
than almost any other system