Armenia-Azerbaijan: new heavy clashes in Nagorno Karabakh between the two armies
Azerbaijan has launched military action in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a step that could portend a new war in the volatile area but which Baku has called necessary to restore constitutional order and oust Armenian military formations.
Karabakh is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, but part of it is run by ethnic Armenian separatist authorities who say the area is their ancestral homeland. It has been at the center of two wars – the latest in 2020 – since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Loud and repeated shelling could be heard today from social media footage shot in Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, called Khankendi by Azerbaijan. There was precise bombing of the Armenian army positions and the city.
An Armenian anti-aircraft system of Russian origin TOR was hit and destroyed
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Karabakh's human rights ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan said the civilian population suffered "multiple casualties" following attacks by the Azerbaijani army.
In a statement announcing its operation, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry spoke of its intention to "disarm and ensure the withdrawal of formations of the Armenian Armed Forces from our territories, (and) neutralize their military infrastructure."
It said it was targeting only legitimate military targets using “high-precision weapons” and not civilians, as part of what it called a push to “restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
Civilians were free to depart via humanitarian corridors, including to Armenia.
Ethnic Armenian forces in Karabakh said Azeri forces were trying to break through their defenses after heavy shelling, but were holding the line for now.
Armenia, which had held peace talks with Azerbaijan, including on issues over the future of Karabakh, condemned what it called Baku's "full-scale aggression" against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and accused l 'Azerbaijan to bomb cities and villages.
“Driven by a sense of impunity, Azerbaijan has openly claimed responsibility for the aggression,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Armenia, which says its armed forces are not in Karabakh and that the situation on the border with Azerbaijan is stable, has asked members of the United Nations Security Council for help and for Russian peacekeepers on the ground to intervene.
Russia, which has brokered a fragile ceasefire after the 2020 war that saw Azerbaijan recapture swaths of land in and around Karabakh that it lost in an earlier conflict in the 1990s, has called on all sides to stop the fighting.
Armenia has accused Moscow of being too distracted by the war in Ukraine to protect its own security and accused Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh of failing to do their job.
Speaking inside Karabakh with the roar of artillery in the background, Ruben Vardanyan, a banker who was a senior official in Karabakh's ethnic Armenian administration until February, appealed for Armenia to recognize its self-declared independence of Karabakh from Azerbaijan.
He also called on the international community to impose sanctions on Baku.
“A really serious situation has arisen here,” Vardanyan said on Telegram. “Azerbaijan has launched a large-scale military operation against 120,000 inhabitants, of which 30,000 are children, pregnant women and the elderly,” he said.
The Armenian government held a security council meeting to discuss the situation as people gathered in the government district of Yerevan, the Armenian capital, to demand authorities take action.
Baku announced its operation after complaining that six of its citizens had been killed by landmines in two separate incidents, which it blamed on "illegal Armenian armed groups." Armenia responded that the
The escalation came a day after badly needed food and medicine was delivered to Karabakh along two roads at the same time, a step that appeared to help defuse growing tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Until recent days, Baku had imposed radical restrictions on the Lachin corridor – the only road connecting Armenia to Karabakh – and had blocked aid on the grounds that the route would be used for arms smuggling.
Yerevan claimed that Baku's actions had caused a humanitarian catastrophe, a charge rejected by the other side.
Baku probably wants to close the match with Armenia on Nagorno Karabakh by focusing on the current Russian disinterest. Yerevan cannot politically afford to lose face and will do everything to avoid it.
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The article Armenia-Azerbaijan: new heavy clashes in Nagorno Karabakh between the two armies comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/armenia-azerbaigian-nuovi-pesanti-scontri-nel-nagorno-karabakh-fra-i-due-eserciti/ on Tue, 19 Sep 2023 13:51:01 +0000.