 Shusha was the most important military stronghold that Azerbaijan held in Nagorno-Karabakh – its loss marked a turning point in the war, and led to a series of military victories by Armenian forces in the course of the conflict.However, some of the shelling was, according to the accounts of former residents, either indiscriminate or intentionally aimed at civilian targets.In February 1988, Nagorno-Karabakh had been an autonomous oblast for over sixty years inside the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR.