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Nagorno-Karabakh fighters had little exposure to Azerbaijani troops: Armenian tanks were again destroyed and one civilian was killed. Chancellor Merkel calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Azerbaijan has continued its military offensive in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The troops headed towards the city of Fusuli and destroyed four Armenian tanks, according to the Defense Ministry in the capital, Baku. In the city of Gadrut, an elderly woman was killed in an Azerbaijani drone attack in the courtyard of a house, local authorities said. Three residents were injured.
Azerbaijan said that it had already recovered seven villages in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday. According to military reports, Azerbaijani troops also occupied strategically important heights in the mountainous region. The Nagorno-Karabakh fighters reportedly tried unsuccessfully to regain the positions under their control.
The toughest fight in years
The Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is controlled by Armenia, is part of Islamic Azerbaijan under international law. In a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan lost control of the area. Now it is inhabited by Armenian Christians from Karabakh. Armenia depends on Russia as a protective power, which has thousands of soldiers and many weapons stationed there. Azerbaijan, armed militarily, has Turkey as an ally.
The current fight is the toughest in years. Both countries have declared a state of war. The armed forces of the oil-rich Republic of Azerbaijan are many times greater than those of impoverished Armenia.
“Armenia creates facts on the ground”
“The main reason we now have this dispute is the growing frustration of the Azerbaijani leadership that all international formats so far have not provided any solutions and that Armenia is creating facts on the ground,” said Stefan Meister of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. . tagesschau24. Armenia is building a third highway to Nagorno-Karabakh and is populating the region with Syrian Armenians and Lebanese Armenians. This growing integration of Nagorno-Karabakh into the Armenian state is apparently being ignored by the international community, Meister said.
Guterres and Merkel demand a ceasefire
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, called on both sides to end the fighting immediately. Guterres reported this to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan by video phone, said a UN spokesman in New York. Several members of the UN Security Council requested that the issue be put on the agenda immediately. The initiative came from Germany and France, according to diplomatic circles. It is supported by Belgium, Great Britain and Estonia.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called on Armenia and Azerbaijan for an immediate ceasefire. Merkel telephoned Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani Head of State Ilham Aliyev, as announced by government spokesman Steffen Seibert. The Chancellor made it clear that a ceasefire and negotiations were urgent. The basis for this could be the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
