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Yerevan – Turkish F-16 shot down our Su-25. Ankara: not true
Almost 100 are already victims of the bloody clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh, including civilians.
Azerbaijani and Armenian forces reported heavy casualties during the third day of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, cited by world news agencies. Almost 100 people have already died in bloody clashes, including civilians.
Yerevan’s Defense Ministry claims that the Azerbaijani army has suffered heavy losses due to the resumption of hostilities, with nearly 50 drones and 4 helicopters shot down and 80 tanks destroyed.
For its part, Baku announced that the Armenian motorized rifle regiment Martuni had been completely destroyed. All equipment was destroyed and the wounded were evacuated. There was also news from the Armenian Defense Ministry that a Turkish F-16 shot down an Armenian Su-25 in Armenian airspace and the pilot was killed. On Monday, western media reported that Ankara was supporting the Azeris with aviation and military force. However, Turkey denies having sent planes to the region and that the reports of the downed Su-25 are true. We will use Russian Iskander missiles against the Turkish F-16s, but the Armenians are a threat.
The military in Baku also claim that their forces are advancing on the city of Fuzuli, destroying 4 enemy tanks and an armored vehicle. Azerbaijan does not report its military casualties, but only 10 civilians killed, 5 of them from a family. There are 84 Armenian soldiers dead. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yerevan, the Azerbaijani army bombed the city of Vardenis, which is not in Nagorno-Karabakh, but in Armenia.
Armenian authorities have said that they may be forced to use a powerful weapon.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an immediate ceasefire and the UN Security Council met in an emergency meeting on the crisis. US President Donald Trump said: “We need to see how to stop this conflict.” “Both sides must end the violence and work with the Minsk Group to return to real negotiations as soon as possible,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded. The Kremlin has urged Turkey to persuade countries to cease fire and return to the negotiating table.
Blood has been spilled in the land of discord for decades
The decades-long conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has its roots in the past. The territory became part of the Russian Empire in the early 19th century as a result of the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813, and part of the local Muslim population emigrated.
After the October Revolution, the state of the region remained uncertain. On July 4, 1921, the Caucasian Office of the Central Committee of the RCP decided to hand over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory to Armenia. However, it was not until the next day that the decision was reconsidered in favor of Azerbaijan due to “the need for national peace between Muslims and Armenians.”
Thus, starting in 1921, the region became an administrative-territorial unit within the Azerbaijani Soviet Republic. In 1923 it received the status of an autonomous region. According to the 1926 census, there are 94% Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the last census of 1989, they were 77%. In 2013, the population was 146,000 people. In Soviet times, Yerevan repeatedly demanded that the region be handed over to its jurisdiction, but did not receive the support of the Allied leaders.
In 1987, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, a petition for membership of Armenia began to be collected in Nagorno-Karabakh and, in early 1988, 75,000 signatures were delivered to the Central Committee of the CPSU. Baku’s extremely negative reaction is swift. A few months later, the Nagorno-Karabakh regional council announced the secession of Azerbaijan and the Soviet Union issued a decree that the region could not be handed over to Armenia.
Soon the first armed confrontations between Armenians and Azeris began. The first victims are two young Azeris who come out to protest against the decision to separate. Tensions forced the Soviet leadership to take over directly in 1989. At the end of 1989, the authorities of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region approved a unification decree, but the USSR leadership approved it. declared unconstitutional.
On August 30, 1991, Azerbaijan became an independent republic, including Nagorno-Karabakh. A few days later, a Declaration on the proclamation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was adopted in Stepanakert. In December of the same year, in a referendum on the state of Nagorno-Karabakh, 99.98% of the participants declared independence, but neither the Soviet leadership nor the international community recognized the results of the survey. Azerbaijan declared it illegal and revoked the autonomy of the region.
As a result, a large-scale military conflict broke out, in which not only small arms were used, but also tanks, artillery and aircraft left over from the Soviet era. Azerbaijan is trying to retain Karabakh, but Armenian troops, with the support of Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora abroad, have managed to gain control of this mountainous but highly strategic terrain. In February 1992, the Khojaly massacre took place, in which hundreds of Azeri civilians were killed or disappeared, and the city was razed to the ground. These actions against innocent people are a response to the bombing by Azerbaijani forces against the capital, Stepanakert.
According to various figures from the conflict, the two countries have claimed between 25,000 and 30,000. Tens of thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands of civilians became refugees. In May 1994, a ceasefire agreement was signed in Bishkek with the mediation of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Independent States. Negotiations for a peaceful solution to the conflict have been underway since 1991.
Baku insists on the restoration of territorial integrity and the return of refugees. Only then will it be ready to start negotiations on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku has said it will grant autonomy to the region, but has refused to hold direct talks with separatists.
For Armenia, the main issue is the self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh and the recognition of its status by the international community, and its return to Azerbaijan is excluded.
Since the signing of the Bishkek Protocol in 1994, the parties to the conflict have been repeatedly accused of violating the ceasefire and armed incidents have broken out along the border. The situation drastically deteriorated in 2014, when serious border incidents became more frequent. This led to April 2016, when 18 Armenian and 12 Azerbaijani servicemen died and more than 200 were injured. Then a ceasefire was reached with the mediation of Russia. However, periodic border conflicts continued to emerge.
The situation is also complicated by the geostrategic interests of the region. Russia views the South Caucasus as a security buffer zone south of its borders, and the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one way to expand its influence in the region. Russia presents itself as a defender of the interests of Armenia. However, it has been playing a double game for years, supplying weapons to both Yerevan and Baku. Thousands of Russian soldiers and border guards are stationed in Armenia, recalls Deutsche Welle.
Turkey, for its part, has always fully supported Azerbaijan. NATO was the first to recognize the independence of the former Soviet republic in 1991. Former President Heydar Aliyev once said it was “one nation in two states.” In 1993, in support of Baku, Ankara closed its border with Armenia. Relations between the two countries have been strained for years due to the massacres of Armenians during the First World War. Turkey insists that the conflict be resolved in favor of Azerbaijan.
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