An ethnic Armenian soldier fires an artillery piece during a clash with Azerbaijani forces in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh | Photo credit: Reuters
New Delhi: Armenia and Azerbaijan rejected international calls for negotiations and a halt to fighting as fierce fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region spread to a fourth day on Wednesday.
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are involved in the heaviest fighting in years over Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian province that separated from Azerbaijan in the 1990s during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The long-running conflict broke out on Sunday with the two sides exchanging intense fire and blaming each other for the outbreak of violence.
Nearly 100 people are confirmed to have died in the blast and both sides claim to have caused heavy losses to opposing forces.
Azerbaijan has not admitted any military deaths, but an AFP journalist in the southern Beylagan region saw dozens of women crying over the coffin of a soldier killed in the clashes before men with Azerbaijani flags recited prayers at a funeral.
There has been mounting international pressure for a ceasefire, as fears grow that the conflict will escalate into a devastating all-out war and draw regional powers like Turkey and Russia.
Defense officials in Yerevan on Wednesday accused Turkish planes of conducting “provocative flights” along their shared border and violating Armenia’s airspace, a day after Yerevan said a Turkish plane had shot down one of its fighter jets.
– Military pact with Russia –
Moscow, which has a military pact with Armenia but also good ties with Azerbaijan, has repeatedly called for an end to the fighting and has offered to help with the negotiations.
But Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that talks with Azerbaijan were not yet on the table.
“It is not very appropriate to speak of a summit between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia at a time of intense hostilities,” Pashinyan said.
“A suitable atmosphere and conditions are needed for negotiations.”
He said Yerevan “at this time” does not plan to request intervention in the conflict from a Russian-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising several former Soviet republics, including Armenia.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also rejected the negotiations during an interview with Russian television on Tuesday.
“The Armenian Prime Minister publicly declares that Karabakh is Armenia, period. In this case, what kind of negotiation process can we talk about?”
There has been no lull in the fighting since the weekend, with both sides reporting new clashes on Wednesday.
Officials from both countries have made claims of huge losses for the other side, but this has not been possible to verify.
‘The intense fight continues’
Azerbaijan has not released information on its military casualties, while the Armenian side has recorded 81 deaths. The deaths of a total of 17 civilians have been reported.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that “heavy fighting continues,” stating that its forces have killed 2,300 Karabakh separatist soldiers since hostilities broke out.
The ministry said its troops had “destroyed 130 tanks, 200 artillery units, 25 antiaircraft units, five ammunition depots, 50 antitank units, 55 military vehicles.”
He said Karabakh separatist forces had “shelled the city of Terter, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
The Karabakh Defense Ministry, for its part, said Azerbaijani forces “continued to bombard” separatist positions along the front line with artillery on Wednesday morning.
The two sides have accused each other of attacking civilian areas, including in areas far from Karabakh.
Yerevan claims that Turkey, a long-time ally of Azerbaijan, is providing direct military support, including mercenaries, to Baku.
It said on Tuesday that a Turkish F-16 flying in support of Baku forces had shot down an Armenian SU-25 warplane, but Ankara and Baku denied the claim.
‘Close to full-scale war’
“We are definitely very close to seeing a war on a large scale, possibly even on a regional scale,” Olesya Vartanyan of the International Crisis Group told AFP.
“If we see massive civilian casualties … it will be a very strong pretext for any regional power to intervene, regardless of Russia or Turkey,” he said.
Karabakh’s declaration of independence from Azerbaijan triggered a war in the early 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives, but no country yet recognizes it as independent, including Armenia.
Armenia and Karabakh declared martial law and military mobilization on Sunday, while Azerbaijan imposed a military regime and a curfew in the big cities.
Talks to resolve the conflict have largely stalled since the 1994 ceasefire agreement.
France, Russia and the United States have mediated peace efforts such as the “Minsk Group,” but the last big push for a peace deal collapsed in 2010.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday condemned what he called Turkey’s “reckless and dangerous” statements backing Baku, saying they “remove any inhibitions from Azerbaijan.”
