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MENA Observatory
In the clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia, at least 16 soldiers were killed and many civilians were injured, and dozens were injured, while Washington urged the parties to immediately cease hostilities.
Authorities in the Armenian separatist administration called the “Nagorno Karabakh” republic said 16 members of their forces were killed and more than 100 injured as a result of aerial and artillery bombardment by Azerbaijani forces on Sunday morning in areas of the region. in dispute.
The two sides reported civilian and military casualties, and the Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman said regional forces “killed about 200 Azeri soldiers and destroyed 30 enemy artillery bars and 20 drones.”
The Azerbaijani Prosecutor’s Office stated that five members of a family were killed in the shelling by Armenian forces.
The clashes, which Azerbaijan and Armenia accuse of being responsible for initiating them, are the most violent clashes between them since 2016 in Nagorno Karabakh, which is located within Azerbaijani lands but where the majority of Armenians live, which renews concern for stability in the South Caucasus region, which is a corridor of pipelines that transport Oil and gas to global markets.
The Azerbaijani parliament approved, early on Sunday, the declaration of a state of war in some cities and regions, following the border clashes with Armenia, and the parliament imposed martial law in the areas of clashes.
For his part, the president of the so-called “Nagorno Karabakh Republic” declared a state of war and general mobilization throughout the region. He said during an emergency session of Parliament in the provincial capital, Stepanakert (Khankendi, after his Azerbaijani name) that he had decided to declare martial law and mobilize all healthy men over 18 years of age.
And while the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry accused the Armenian army in a statement that it was the one that initiated “a large-scale provocation in the early hours of the morning firing light and heavy weapons at Azeri military and civilian sites,” the first Armenian Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Azerbaijan declared war on its people, warning against not ruling out that escalation in the disputed region would exceed the region’s borders and threaten international security.
For his part, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, said that his country will seek to stop the violence that erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“The United States believes that third party involvement in the escalation of violence will be useless and will only exacerbate regional tensions,” the State Department statement said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have long been at odds over the Nagorno Karabakh region, which is inhabited by the majority of ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan, and whose secession was declared in 1991. In 1994, the two countries agreed to a ceasefire. But from time to time they exchanged accusations of attacks. The region’s problem is one of the longest and most complex crises that erupted in the regions of the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991.
