Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict: Putin claims that nearly 5,000 people have died. How did Naka become a purgatory of war?

Armenia and Azerbaijan are republics of the former Soviet Union. Today, Russia has formed a military alliance with Armenia and has a military base in Armenia. But it also has close ties to Azerbaijan.

“There have been a lot of casualties on both sides, with more than 2,000 people on both sides,” Putin told a live televised meeting on Thursday (October 22). He added that the death toll was “close to 5,000”.

This is much higher than previous estimates. The number of deaths officially announced by the two countries was less than 1,000 recently.

The Naqqa authorities said that 874 soldiers and 37 civilians have died since 27 September. Azerbaijan stated that 61 Azerbaijani civilians had been killed, but military casualties had not been disclosed.

Putin said he had “ongoing” communication with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and that he would not favor either side.

“I talk to them several times a day,” Putin said.

Putin declared that he did not agree with Turkey’s views on this conflict, adding that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan “may sound tough, but he is a flexible politician and a reliable Russian partner. “.

Turkey has stated that as long as Azerbaijan requests it, Turkey will send soldiers and provide military support.

Putin also called on the United States and Russia to “work together” to end this war.

Despite Russia’s mediation, the two countries reached a ceasefire agreement last weekend, but the fighting continued and hundreds of people were killed.

According to the Azerbaijani report, clashes broke out in several areas on Thursday. The country accused Armenia of launching three ballistic missiles against Azerbaijan. Armenia denies it.

Armenia reported that clashes had occurred in various locations. Authorities said Martuni and nearby towns were bombed.

The Prime Minister of Armenia declared that there is no diplomatic solution “at this stage”.

Armenia and Azerbaijan will negotiate again in Washington on Friday 23. US Secretary of State Mike Ponpeo met with the foreign ministers of the two countries respectively. But this is only enough to stop the fight between the two sides for one day.

The United States, Russia and France are the co-chairs of the Minsk coordination group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which called for an immediate ceasefire.

Stepanakert is the capital of the Naka region, located 30 kilometers from the front line. During the conflict, Azerbaijan violently shelled the city, with rockets hitting multiple areas, including civilian areas.

In a courtyard in Stepanakert, there are two five-story buildings in ruins. The projectile hit one of them on October 2 and the second was damaged by the blast wave from the explosion. All the windows are broken, and through the broken window frames you can see this scene: the dishes washed by the sink, the coffee pot and the flowers on the table.

A man with a hammer in his hand came out of one of the houses. This is Artur, who lives in an apartment on the first floor. He used aluminum foil to seal the windows from door to door, and said, “It took me five minutes and now I have everything closed.”

When a shell fell here, Artur was celebrating his birthday with his friends. He saw a neighbor lying on the asphalt in the yard.

He said the neighbor was thrown out the window in the shock wave from the explosion. “The projectile is like that. It fell from the third floor and died immediately. I know her, her son is also called Atul.”

Another neighbor of Artur, Radik, 65, also died that day.

The Artur family left for Yerevan on September 27, and their neighbors also left. He stayed to take care of an 80-year-old grandmother who lived across the street.

The old man sat in the hallway at the basement entrance to the apartment, barely climbing the stairs, despite the fact that Stepanakert had been quiet for several days.

There is a radio on the table next to her, which Artur gave her so she can use it to pass the time. Atul said, “He has no children or relatives, but they all went to Yerevan.”

Although Putin’s figures have not been confirmed elsewhere, this round of war between the two countries in the Naka region is undoubtedly the most devastating blow the local area has faced in decades.

Already at the beginning of the conflict, Armenia published a series of videos showing images of suspected Azerbaijani tanks attacked. Video showed the tank exploding after being hit and thick smoke was emitted from the scene. Azerbaijan also published images of the use of rocket launchers at the front.

After that, the conflict between the two countries quickly escalated. The cluster bomb in Azerbaijan hit Stepanakert, the main city in the Naka region. The Armenian army bombed Ganja, the second largest city in Azerbaijan. The two sides were bombarded frequently, and many rockets and mortars were diverted towards neighboring Iran.

UAVs also played an important role on the battlefield. Azerbaijan has used a large number of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 (Bayraktar TB2) drones, roaming the area many times and launching attacks on military installations.

In terms of personnel, Armenia implemented military mobilization throughout the country very early and men of all ages were recruited to participate in the operation. Syrian mercenaries backed by Turkey have also reportedly joined the battlefield to support Azerbaijan. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) stated on October 6 that 72 Syrian mercenaries had been killed in the Naka area.

On October 14, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan publicly declared in a televised speech that the country suffered heavy casualties. But he said that the Armenians “must win, they must survive and build our own history,” adding that Armenia also “caused many losses of manpower and equipment to the enemy.”

Azerbaijani President Aliyev accused Armenia of attacking Azerbaijan’s oil and gas pipelines. The country’s Ministry of National Defense stated that they destroyed the ballistic missile launchers in Armenia aimed at the city.

Although the international community recognized that the Naka region belonged to Azerbaijan, Armenians constituted the absolute majority of the population, leading to an armed conflict between the two countries in the 1980s. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Armenian separatist movement in the region rapidly intensified.

The result was that a bloody war broke out between the two sides in late 1992. This war resulted in the death of 30,000 people and the displacement of millions of people. Both sides were accused of attacking civilians. In 1994, the two countries signed a ceasefire agreement under the mediation of Russia, but the area has been fully controlled by Armenia.

Although the war of the 1990s achieved a ceasefire, conflicts have erupted from time to time since then. In 2016, hundreds of people died during the 4-day battle. The conflict in July this year resulted in dozens of deaths on both sides, most of whom were soldiers.

On September 27 of this year, despite the challenge of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic, the two countries again erupted into their worst conflict since 1992. Emerging weapons, such as drones, are used in wars. Both Russia and Turkey have interests in both countries, which makes the outside world worry that this war will expand and intensify even more.