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Shelling, air strikes, tanks and helicopters destroyed: Intense fighting broke out in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting for the South Caucasus region for years.
Intense fighting has broken out between the hostile countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the southern Caucasus conflict zone of Nagorno-Karabakh. The capital, Stepanakert, had been bombed, people should be safe, said local authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh. A state of war would apply to the region. All operational residents over the age of 18 should be ready, according to agencies.
Both sides blamed each other for the fighting. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said the army had launched a “counteroffensive” “to stop Armenia’s military activities and protect the safety of the people.” The Ministry spoke of a downed helicopter.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, announced in a Facebook post in the morning that the Azerbaijani armed forces had launched an offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. “All responsibility for this rests with the political-military leadership of Azerbaijan,” he wrote. Therefore, Armenia used helicopters and combat drones. The Defense Ministry spoke of two Azerbaijani helicopters shot down and several tanks destroyed. Civilians were also killed in the fighting, according to both parties.
Conflict since 1991
The Nagorno-Karabakh region, controlled by Armenia, belongs to the Islamic region of Azerbaijan according to international law. The conflict over the region broke out after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Nagorno-Karabakh held the status of an autonomous region of the USSR. In 1992, war broke out in the area, killing some 30,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands over the next two years. At that time, Azerbaijan had lost control of the Christian Armenian-inhabited area of Karabakh. The ceasefire agreed in 1994 has been repeatedly broken to this day. The conflict last broke out in 2016.
The Foreign Ministry does not recognize the region as the “Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh” and describes it as “areas of the Republic of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenian forces.” Armenia depends on Russia as a protective power, which has stationed thousands of soldiers and weapons there.
