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A house destroyed by the recent offensive of the Azerbaijani forces in the separatist region of Martoni in Nagorno Karabakh on September 28, 2020
Today, Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged accusations of shooting at civilian areas far from the disputed conflict zone in the Nagorno Karabakh region, as the worst wave of fighting between the two countries since the 1990s entered its third day in a row and with the high death toll among the civilian population.
The fighting since last Sunday is reported to have left nearly 100 dead, including civilians, and hundreds injured.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said 10 civilians have been killed in the Armenian bombings since Sunday. There was no official information on the casualties among the Azerbaijani soldiers.
For its part, the Armenian Defense Ministry said that an Armenian civilian bus in Vardinis, an Armenian city on the border with Azerbaijan and far from Nagorno Karabakh, caught fire after being hit by an Azerbaijani drone. The ministry added that apparently no one was injured in the accident, but was investigating the matter.
Meanwhile, international calls were issued calling on the two conflicting parties to cease fire. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an immediate ceasefire and a reduction in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in two phone calls with the leaders of the two countries.
“The chancellor urgently called for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table,” said Stephen Sipper, a spokesman for the German government. Saber added that Merkel spoke by phone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashnyan on Monday and with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday.
In the two calls, Merkel said the so-called “Minsk group” of mediators led by France, Russia and the United States “provides an appropriate forum” for dialogue.
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The German Chancellor urgently called for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table
For its part, France said on Tuesday that it will convene talks between the member states of the “Minsk Group” in an attempt to find a solution to the recent escalation between the two southern Caucasian countries.
An official from the French president’s office, Emmanuel Macron, told Reuters: “We will coordinate in the coming days with the Minsk Group to find out the truth of what happened and who is responsible, and we will find a way out of this situation.”
Today, the UN Security Council will hold closed-door emergency talks in Nagorno Karabakh, according to UN diplomats.
Counter attacks
The Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire on a military unit in the city of “Vardinis”, but that the situation was less tense at the borders.
As for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, it said that the Armenian army bombed the Dashkisan region from the city of “Vardinis”, inside Azerbaijan. This account was denied by Armenia.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan reported the murder of five members of a family. Today, Armenia said that a nine-year-old girl was killed in artillery attacks, while her mother and brother were injured. A mother and her son were also killed in “Martoni” last Sunday, according to the Defense Ministry in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
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Soldiers and volunteers prepare to leave for Nagorno Karabakh after the Armenian government declared martial law and general mobilization in the country.
The ongoing clashes have once again raised concerns about stability in the South Caucasus region, which is an important corridor for pipelines that transport oil and gas to world markets.
A deputy in the Armenian parliament of the ruling coalition, “Lillet Makounts”, said in a post on her Facebook page that Armenia is studying the possibility of concluding a political-military alliance with Nagorno-Karabakh.
As for the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense, it said that the two sides (Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh) tried to regain lost areas by launching counterattacks towards Fizuli, Gabriel, Agdiri and Tatar, areas that Armenia occupied from Azerbaijan and located on the border with Nagorno Karabakh. , according to the ministry.
By contrast, Armenia reported that fighting continued overnight and said the Nagorno-Karabakh army was able to repel attacks from various directions along the Seam border.
Analysts believe that any move toward all-out war will drag the two major regional powers, Russia and Turkey, down with it. Moscow has a military alliance with Armenia, which provides vital support to the region and represents a lifeline linking it to the outside world, while Ankara supports Azerbaijan, which includes ethnic Turks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Armenia yesterday to end the “occupation” of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is disputed by Azerbaijan.
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A man in the courtyard of his house destroyed by an attack by Azerbaijani forces in the separatist Martonyi district of Nagorno Karabakh, September 28, 2020
Erdogan said that ending the “occupation” of Armenia and its withdrawal from the region is the only course of action that would establish peace.
Turkish news agency Anadolu quoted Erdogan as saying that “Turkey will continue to support friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan in all its capacities.”
Erdogan’s senior adviser, Elnur Civik, said Turkey had told its allies in Azerbaijan to go as far as they wanted.
The roots of the conflict go back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, when the Nagorno Karabakh region, inhabited by a majority of ethnic Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan, prompting the outbreak of a war that claimed 30,000 lives. Since then, no country has recognized the independence of the territory, including Armenia, and the international community still considers it part of the territory of Azerbaijan.
Skirmishes between the two countries continued during this period, including bloody battles, as happened last July and 2016.
