[ad_1]
On Saturday, Russia expressed its willingness to provide “necessary” assistance to Armenia, which faces a conflict with Azerbaijan in the breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region, should the fighting spill over into Armenian lands.
The announcement by Russia, which renewed its call for a ceasefire, came after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked President Vladimir Putin to initiate “urgent” consultations on the help Moscow could provide to Yerevan.
And Pashinyan sent his message after Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach a new ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh during talks in Geneva on Friday. These announcements raise fears of escalating fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Russia has a military base in Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia, and has a mutual security treaty with Yerevan. But it has previously said that it does not include the breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region.
“Russia will provide Yerevan with all necessary assistance in case of direct clashes on the territory of Armenia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In a letter to Putin, Pashinyan said on Saturday morning that the fighting was closing in on the border with Armenia and again accused Turkey of supporting Azerbaijan.
He asked Moscow for help, talking about the good relations between the two countries and the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance that binds the two countries since 1997.
The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that “the Prime Minister of Armenia requested the President of Russia to initiate urgent consultations with the aim of determining the nature and amount of assistance that the Russian Federation can provide to Armenia to ensure its security.” .
Climbing risk
Carrie Kavanaugh, a former US ambassador, considered that direct military intervention in the conflict did not benefit Moscow.
“An intervention by the Russian or Turkish forces at this stage will lead to a great escalation of the conflict,” he told AFP.
He added that the Russian army “could withdraw its forces from its garrisons in Gyumri to ensure the security of the Armenian borders or provide assistance to refugees who fled the fighting.”
For his part, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said via Twitter on Saturday that he “does not want” a third country to intervene in the conflict.
“This is a battle between us and Armenia. No one should intervene,” he added.
Azerbaijan is suspected of receiving significant support from Turkey, including especially Syrian military experts and fighters, accusations that the two countries categorically deny.
The fighting continued on Saturday, a day after a failed meeting in Geneva between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers.
During the day, the Nagorno Karabakh authorities announced that the capital of the separatist region was bombed, in addition to several villages and the strategic city of Shusha, and reported that a civilian was killed and others injured.
The Azerbaijani army accused Yerevan on Saturday of attacking the city of Tarter and three other villages with missiles.
Phosphorus ammunition
A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry, Shushan Stepanyan, condemned the prohibited use of “phosphorous munitions” in Azerbaijan and posted a video showing white dew falling on a wooded area that is on fire.
On the other hand, senior Azerbaijani official Hikmat Hajiyev condemned on Twitter the use of phosphorus from Yerevan near Shusha, “to blur the visibility of drones used by the Azerbaijani army.”
The foreign ministers of Armenia, Zahrab Manatsakanyan, and of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, met in Geneva on Friday in an attempt to find a way out of this crisis, but to no avail.
In a statement issued on Friday evening, the French, Russian and American mediators, meeting within the framework of the Minsk Group, said that the warring parties had agreed to a series of measures, in particular a pledge “not to intentionally attack the civilian population or bombard non-military targets. “
Azerbaijan and Armenia have faced a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since Yerevan-backed Armenian separatists took control of this mountainous region in the 1990s after a war that left 30,000 dead.
The conflict resumed on September 27, and fighting continues despite international attempts to reach a ceasefire.
The two parties to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a ceasefire three times during talks brokered by Russia, France and the United States, but they did not last long.
The partial figures indicated that more than 1,250 people, including more than 130 civilians, had died since the worst battles resumed since the war in the 1990s resumed, but the actual number may be much higher. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the possibility that the death toll is close to 5,000.
