Clashes continue in Nagorno-Karabakh amid calls for a ceasefire

The Azerbaijani military announced today, Monday, that it will continue to launch a counterattack in response to Armenia’s violation of the armistice and its shooting at civilian residential sites in Azerbaijan, amid international calls for a ceasefire.

According to Defense Ministry spokesman Anar Iwazov, Azerbaijani forces managed to destroy 24 tanks and armored vehicles, OSA anti-aircraft systems and 18 drones of the Armenian army.

Iwazov stated that the Armenian side “is hiding its losses” and that “Armenia is hiding this information from its people and also from the international community.”

And the Azerbaijani army had previously announced the liberation of the “Murovdag” summit from the Armenian occupation and the liberation of 6 villages in the Foduli and Gabriel regions from the Armenian occupation, as part of its counteroffensive launched on Sunday morning.

Turkish position

And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that Turkey supports Azerbaijan with all its capabilities and called on Armenia to leave Nagorno-Karabakh immediately.

For his part, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that Armenia must immediately stop its attacks and withdraw “the mercenaries and terrorists it brought from abroad.”

“We are with our Azerbaijani brothers and Armenia must withdraw from the lands it occupied,” he added.

On the other hand, Armenia today accused Turkey of providing direct military support to Azerbaijan, and the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Turkey has a “direct presence on the ground.”

He added that Turkey’s military experts “are fighting side by side” with Azerbaijan, which Armenia said was also using Turkish weapons, including drones and fighter jets. Azerbaijan denied these accusations.

Call to calm down

For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh is very dangerous and that the two sides are using heavy weapons after a long hiatus, and Moscow called on all interested foreign parties to act with restraint. with regard to climbing.

The Kremlin said that Russia and Turkey are in constant contact about the situation in Nagorno Karabakh.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that he called in two calls with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations to achieve stability.

Since Sunday, fighting continues on the front line between Azerbaijan and Armenia, after Armenian forces fired at civilian residential sites in Azerbaijan.

In a statement, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry stated that the Armenian fire caused civilian casualties, in addition to causing extensive damage to civil infrastructure in several villages that were subjected to heavy Armenian bombardment.

These battles raised international concern, and the clashes spurred diplomatic efforts to reduce tension in the decades-long conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which since 1992 occupies about 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory.