“Decisive moments” in Karabakh and the battles intensify

Stepanakert: “Violent battles” continue on Saturday between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijani forces on most of the front line in Nagorno Karabakh, with Yerevan acknowledging that the separatists have suffered heavy losses, while the Armenian Prime Minister said his country faces “fateful moments.”

And in a speech to the nation on Saturday, Nikole Pashinyan called on Armenians to join forces. “Dear citizens, my brothers and sisters, we are probably facing the most fateful moments in our history,” he said, referring to the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, where Yerevan-backed Armenian separatists are fighting Azerbaijani forces.

On Saturday night, a “national prayer for Nagorno Karabakh and her mother-in-law” was held in all churches in Armenia and community churches abroad.

On the seventh day of the battles in this region, which Azerbaijan seeks to regain, the Armenian Defense Ministry confirmed that the separatist forces were able to deter a major attack.

Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said the Nagorno Karabakh fighters “destroyed a large military concentration” of Azerbaijani forces.

On the other hand, Armenia announced on Saturday the killing of 51 additional Armenian separatist militants, bringing the official death toll on both sides to more than 240.

For its part, Azerbaijan reported that it had managed to regain control of the strategically important village of Madagis, since it allows control of the road that connects Karabakh with Armenia.

In Stepanakert, the largest city in the region, which was bombarded for the first time with heavy artillery on Friday and is witness to frequent Azerbaijani drone flights, new explosions were heard on Saturday.

At night, the sounds of the sirens of ambulances heading to Stepanakert echoed in the Caucasus mountains, an AFP journalist confirmed.

On the road between the Armenian capital, Yerevan, and Goris, a village adjacent to Karabakh, volunteers from among the citizens drove to the battle sites to evacuate families displaced by the shelling to the Armenian capital.

The Nagorno Karabakh region, which has an Armenian majority, declared secession from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, sparking a war that caused 30,000 deaths. No peace agreement was signed between the two sides, although the front has been almost frozen since then, but it witnessed clashes from time to time.

For the head of the separatist region, Arayik Harutyunyan, the “final battle” for Nagorno Karabakh has begun. And he announced, dressed in military uniform, that he was heading to the front to join the combatants.

For his part, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, reiterated the call for the withdrawal of the Armenian forces from the “occupied territories” of Azerbaijan.

“We will take back our lands, this is our legitimate right and our historic goal,” he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

Since the start of the fighting on September 27, the partial official balance indicates that 242 people, 209 soldiers in Karabakh, 14 Armenian civilians and 19 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed. Baku does not announce its military losses.

The death toll is likely to be higher as Yerevan confirms that more than 3,000 Azerbaijani soldiers have died since the fighting began on Sunday, while Baku announces the death of 2,300 Armenian soldiers.

The two parties to the conflict ignored calls from the international community for a ceasefire. Moscow, Washington and Paris, which are involved in mediating the conflict within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have called, more than once, for a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Iran, which borders Armenia and Azerbaijan, warned against any “penetration” into its lands, following reports of mortar shells falling in Iranian villages and injuring a 6-year-old boy.

It is also worrying to talk about sending pro-Turkish fighters, especially Syrian, to support Azerbaijan in the fight.

Ankara is a strong ally of Baku, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to insist on the need for Armenian forces to leave Nagorno-Karabakh.

On Saturday Aliyev thanked Erdogan and the “brother Turkish people” for their “support” in a message published by the Azerbaijani presidency.

Baku emphasizes that no foreign fighter fights alongside its forces. “Azerbaijan does not need them,” Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Fariz Razaev told Russia’s TASS news agency.

French President Emmanuel Macron had previously confirmed that 300 fighters from “jihadist groups” in Syria were heading to Turkey and from there to Azerbaijan, saying that “a red line had been crossed.”

Despite the denials from Baku, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 64 Syrian militants loyal to Ankara, who were fighting with Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, had been killed since the start of clashes with Armenian separatists.

In total, Ankara sent 1,200 Syrian fighters to Nagorno Karabakh to support the Azerbaijani forces, according to the observatory.