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The UN Security Council has called for an “immediate” end to the fighting in the South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The OSCE plans to send observers to the crisis zone again soon.
The UN Security Council has called for an “immediate” stop to fighting in the South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh. In a joint statement, the 15 member states of the most powerful UN body called on the parties to the conflict to return to the negotiating table “without delay.” It should work with the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE).
According to diplomats, the Security Council emerged at the emergency meeting on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, which had intensified in recent days, at the initiative of Germany and France. The deliberations took place behind closed doors.
Worrying about intervention and escalation
There is great fear that the conflict over the disputed region between Azerbaijan and Armenia could be aggravated due to the intervention of foreign powers. On Tuesday, the Armenian Defense Ministry alleged that a Turkish F-16 plane shot down an Armenian military plane. This was immediately denied by the Ankara government. Armenia accuses Turkey of actively intervening on the Azerbaijani side in the current fighting.
On Sunday, after years of relative calm, the conflict flared up again. The Azerbaijani army and the pro-Armenian rebels who control Nagorno-Karabakh fight each other. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has been going on for decades. After a bloody war with 30,000 dead, the former Soviet autonomous zone declared its independence from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.
However, the region is not recognized by any country as a separate state and is still considered part of Azerbaijan internationally. In the southern Caucasus, Turkey competes with Russia for greater influence. Moscow maintains a friendly relationship with both parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It maintains a military base in Armenia, but it also supplies weapons to Azerbaijan.
OSCE wants to use observers again as soon as possible
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe wants to use observers again in Nagorno-Karabakh as soon as possible. OSCE special envoy for the region Andrzej Kasprzyk said they will be ready as soon as the situation in the area, which has been rocked for days by fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan, allows it again. It is in contact with the parties in conflict.
At a special meeting, diplomats from the 57 OSCE member states exchanged views on the situation in the escalating conflict in the South Caucasus. The representatives of Albania, the OSCE Chairmanship, and the OSCE Minsk Group (France, Russia and the United States) again called for an end to the violence and a return to the negotiating table.
The United States warned that the conflict would worsen with third-party interference. “The United States believes that having any outside party involved in escalating violence would only exacerbate regional tensions,” warned US Ambassador James Gilmore. Turkey had previously backed Azerbaijan very clearly and blamed Armenia for the escalation. The protective power of Armenia Russia, on the other hand, urged Turkey to bring Azerbaijan to a ceasefire and negotiations.
