Clashes between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces entered a fourth day on Wednesday in the largest eruption of their conflict in decades since a 1994 ceasefire.
Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh said there were attacks from both sides in various directions along the line of contact that divides them.
The fighting has spread far beyond the borders of the enclave and threatens to escalate into an all-out war between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, said that at this time he was not considering asking for help under a post-Soviet security treaty, but does not rule out doing so.
“Armenia will guarantee their safety, with or without the participation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO),” Pashinyan was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
He said he and Putin had not discussed the possibility of a Russian military intervention in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Russia has used the CSTO, along with the Eurasian Economic Union, another regional bloc focused on trade, to project influence across most of the former Soviet Union.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a separatist region within Azerbaijan, but it is run by ethnic Armenians and is supported by Armenia. It was separated from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s, but no country recognizes it as an independent republic.
Any move towards all-out war could drag down Russia and Turkey, which is a close ally of Azerbaijan.
The Azeri prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that seven more civilians were injured as a result of the shelling of the city of Terter, which borders Nagorno-Karabakh.
His defense ministry said ethnic Armenian forces tried to make up lost ground by launching counterattacks in the direction of Madagiz, but Azeri forces repelled the attack.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the Azeri army had been shelling the entire front line overnight and two Azeri drones were shot down in the city of Stepanakert, the administrative center of Nagorno-Karabakh. The report could not be independently confirmed.
Dozens of people were reported killed and hundreds injured since the new wave of fighting broke out on Sunday.
.
