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The new military confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the worst since 2016. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been dormant for almost 30 years. And Russia and Turkey play an important role in it, recalls Deutsche Welle.
The new military confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the worst since 2016. There is talk of deaths and injuries on both sides. Armenia has declared martial law and mobilized the male population. Martial law has been in force since midnight in various regions of Azerbaijan. The same measures were announced by the president of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Previously, there was heavy fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, for which the two sides blamed each other. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of aerial and artillery fire against the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and Azerbaijan, in turn, explained that it had only responded to the Armenian attack.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warns that the conflict could spread to other regions. “The authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan has again declared war on the Armenian people,” he said in a statement on Armenian television. “We are facing a major war in the southern Caucasus, which could have unpredictable consequences for the region and beyond,” Pashinyan said. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, for its part, announced that it had launched a “retaliatory offensive” to stop “Armenian military activities” in the region and guarantee the safety of the population.
A look at history
From the point of view of international law, the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region, whose population of 145,000 is predominantly Armenian-Christian, belongs to Islamic Azerbaijan. Conflict over the district erupted after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Until then, the region had an autonomous status within the Soviet Union. In 1992, Armenia and Azerbaijan also took military action, challenging the rights of others over the region.
Almost 30,000 people died in the clashes over the next two years and hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes. At that time, Azerbaijan lost control of the region. A truce was reached in 1994, but it is regularly violated. The conflict last erupted in 2016.
The role of Russia and Turkey
Russia and Turkey play an important role in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Turkey is firmly on the side of Azerbaijan, even with military assistance. It is unclear whether the Turkish armed forces will implement their plans to establish Turkish military bases in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan. There were military agreements and promises of aid between Turkey and Azerbaijan years ago, but Turkey has long refrained from active military and diplomatic action, in line with Moscow’s claims in the region.
Russia views the South Caucasus as a security buffer zone south of its borders. However, the leadership in Moscow has been playing a double game in the region for years, supplying arms to both Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the same time, Russia presents itself as the defender of Armenia. Thousands of Russian soldiers and border guards are stationed in the country.
Russia is using the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to expand its influence in the region. However, in the event of an open war, Russia could lose control, opening up new opportunities not only for Turkey but also for Iran, as well as for China, which is also increasingly interested in the region.
Moscow is now calling for an immediate ceasefire. It was announced that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in active talks, calling on both sides to the conflict to end the fighting. The UN and the EU, as well as individual countries like Germany and France, have also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. European Council President Charles Michel said the two parties to the conflict should return to the negotiating table immediately.
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