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Armenia and Azerbaijan reported heavy destruction and casualties on September 27 after clashes in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region unleashed a wave of diplomacy aimed at defusing tensions.
The two countries declared martial law and accused each other of starting the fighting, which claimed at least 23 lives.
Military officials in Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed that 16 of their military were among the dead and more than 100 were injured. Armenian rights activists previously said that an ethnic Armenian woman and child had also been killed.
Azerbaijan said that five members of a family were killed in the bombings by the Armenian armed forces. According to the Attorney General’s Office, 19 civilians have been injured and hospitalized.
The fighting was the worst escalation of violence since 2016 and generated swift responses from European countries, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.
The US State Department expressed alarm at reports of “large-scale military action” that resulted in “significant casualties,” including civilians.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms this escalation of violence,” said State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. in a sentence.
Ortagus said Undersecretary Stephen Biegun called on the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia “to urge both sides to immediately cease hostilities” and to use existing communication links between them to prevent further escalation and “rhetoric and actions. useless that further increase tensions on the ground. ” Ortagus said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “extremely concerned about the new resumption of hostilities”, adding his voice to the condemnations of the violence from Germany, France and Italy and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian previously said that the government decided to declare martial law and full mobilization after Azerbaijan launched an air and artillery strike against civilian settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh, including in the regional capital of Stepanakert.
Azerbaijan’s parliament followed up with its own introduction of martial law across the country along with curfews, said Hikmet Hajiyev, an aide to the president.
Clashes broke out around 7 am between Azeri and Armenian forces over the separatist region, which is inside Azerbaijan but run by ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijan said it had launched a military operation in response to the bombings along the so-called Line of Contact that separates the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on the front line of Europe’s longest conflict.
The Armenian government, as part of its declaration of martial law, requires that local media cite only official Armenian information on reports related to the army and prohibits the use of Azeri or external sources.
Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisian said that Azeri forces launched missile attacks along the Line of Contact and that civilians and civilian infrastructure in Stepanakert had been targeted.
“There has been significant damage to buildings in certain parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and [its capital,] Stepanakert, “Hovhannisian said during a news conference.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who expressed concern about the situation in the region and “emphasized the urgency of restoring the ceasefire regime” . Bayramov said that the Armenian armed forces had violated the ceasefire.
Russia, which views Yerevan as a strategic partner, called on both sides to “immediately stop the fire and begin talks to stabilize the situation.”
Turkey, a close ally of Baku, said Armenia must immediately cease hostility towards Azerbaijan which “will throw the region into the fire.”
Pashinian also called on the international community to ensure that Turkey does not get involved in the conflict. Turkey had previously harshly criticized Armenia, saying that Yerevan was an obstacle to peace and promising to continue its support for Baku.
“We believe that this conflict can be resolved through peaceful negotiations, but the Armenian side has so far shown no interest other than continuing to occupy parts of Azerbaijan,” Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Reuters, calling on the countries of the Minsk group to pressure Armenia.
The Minsk Group is a platform established by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Ortagus also called on the two sides to work with the Minsk Group.
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan were occupied by Armenian-backed separatists who declared independence amid a 1988-1994 conflict that killed at least 30,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
Since a fragile truce brokered by Russia in 1994, the region has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces that, according to Azerbaijan, include troops supplied by Armenia. The region’s claim to independence has not been recognized by any country.
In July, a multi-day outbreak that included drone strikes and heavy artillery fire killed at least 17 people, mostly soldiers from both sides but including at least one civilian, in the worst fighting in about four years. Since then, there have been periodic skirmishes in the region.
