[ad_1]
In Nagorno-Karabakh, “it is urgent that all hostilities cease. There is a risk of serious consequences and destabilization of the entire region.” Thus the spokesman for the European External Action Service, Peter Stano, who urges “all actors in the region to help stop the armed confrontation. No one can have an interest” in feeding it. And we invite “to avoid interference from abroad.”
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict flares up again in a crescendo of violence and tension that risks spreading beyond the mountains of the disputed autonomous region and the borders of the two enemy states, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as it has already threatened. the prime minister of Yerevan. The frozen war since 1994 was suddenly reignited last night when the Azerbaijani army shelled the positions of the Armenian independence forces they had attacked and then launched a counteroffensive. The Armenian separatists immediately proclaimed martial law and “general mobilization.” A few hours later, Armenia and Azerbaijan did the same.
“The government has decided to declare martial law and general mobilization,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Facebook. The Azerbaijani presidency, in turn, has announced the proclamation of martial law and a curfew in the capital, Baku, and other cities. Along with that of weapons, the war of propaganda and mutual accusations began immediately with press releases and posts on social networks.
“We are all united behind our state and our army, and we will win. Long live the glorious Armenian army,” wrote the Armenian prime minister on Facebook after news of the shooting down by pro-Armenian rebels of two Azerbaijani helicopters. The Yerevan government did not even try to hide its objectives, it relaunched the Baku government, explaining that at dawn the Azerbaijani forces launched an offensive to “neutralize the Armenian military forces and safeguard the security of the civilian population.” “.
The number of victims is uncertain. At least 32 Armenian separatists were killed, according to an official statement. At least 15 separatist soldiers from the Nagorno-Karabakh region died today in clashes with Azerbaijan, the defense ministry of the secessionist Armenian-backed province reported. This brings the total number of soldiers killed since the fighting began yesterday morning to 32. Five Azerbaijani civilians and two Armenian civilians from Karabakh were also killed, bringing the official death toll to 39. Azerbaijan has not reported its losses. military.
The current one is the worst Armenian-Azerbaijani crisis in recent years, yet marked by continuing incidents even after the 1994 Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement. The war fought by the two former Soviet republics of the Caucasus in the 1990s left at least 30,000 dead in the countryside after Armenian separatists took control of the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno Karabakh in 1991. And that has remained in Armenian hands. . The United States, France and Russia – who are leading the mediation of the Minsk group – have never managed to sign a real peace in Baku and Yerevan and put a definitive end to a conflict that broke out dramatically after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but has its roots much further, in the confrontation between Armenian Christians and Azeri Muslims marked by Turkish and Persian influences. It is no coincidence that the first reactions came from the respective sponsors, as well as from the European Union and Italy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who spoke by phone with his friend the Armenian prime minister, said “it is important to make all necessary efforts to prevent an escalation of the conflict.” In a statement from the Foreign Ministry, Turkey strongly condemned the Armenian attack on Azerbaijan that caused civilian casualties, reaffirming “its full support” for Baku. While the will to mediate for a negotiation aimed at a ceasefire came from Iran. The European Union, through Prime Minister Charles Michel, has called for an “urgent” halt to military action and the International Committee of the Red Cross is ready to act as an intermediary.
And while Patriarch Karekin II, the Catholic of all Armenians, interrupted the official visit to Italy “to be close to his people”, the Farnesina asked the parties “for the immediate cessation of violence and the beginning of all efforts” . , in particular under the auspices of the OSCE, to prevent the risks of further escalation. “Precisely the one evoked by the prime minister of Yerevan, who warned of the” unforeseeable consequences “of the war” declared by the authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan “that it could extend beyond the Caucasus and warned against “aggressive” interference by Turkey.
[ad_2]
