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Armenia and Azerbaijan dispersed on Tuesday, with accusations of violating a truce reached three days ago with the aim of quelling the fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, while igniting fears among international groups of a humanitarian crisis in the region. The humanitarian truce, brokered by Russia, is unraveling despite escalating calls from world powers to halt the fighting. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Minsk Group were among those calling for greater commitment to the armistice provisions.
A Reuters TV cameraman saw shelling in the town of Martoni in the Nagorno Karabakh region, which is an internationally recognized mountainous enclave that is part of Azerbaijan but is ruled by Armenians. A Reuters TV team in Tartar, Azerbaijan, said the city center was also bombed on Tuesday.
Azerbaijan accused the Armenian forces of committing “horrible violations of the humanitarian truce” that was reached on Saturday with the aim of allowing the two sides to exchange prisoners and corpses. Defense Ministry spokesman Vagiv Darjali said Armenia is shelling Azerbaijani lands in Goranboy, Agdam and Tartar, and stressed that the Azerbaijani forces do not violate the ceasefire. Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan denied the allegation. He said Azerbaijani forces resumed their military operations after an overnight lull, “supported by heavy artillery fire from the south, north, northeast and east sides.”
This escalation is the worst since the war in the region between 1991 and 1994, in which some 30,000 people died.
Eyes abroad put the conflict under close scrutiny, not only because of its proximity to the pipelines that carry oil and gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, but because of fear of drawing Russia and Turkey into the conflict. Russia has a defense agreement with Armenia and Turkey is a close ally of Azerbaijan.
Catastrophic consequences
The Minsk Group called on the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately implement the ceasefire to avoid “serious consequences for the region.” The group includes 11 members, including Russia and Turkey, but Ankara is not participating in the Nagorno Karabakh talks. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu suggested holding talks with the participation of his country. Çavuşolu said the demands for a ceasefire were “reasonable” but added that the international community should demand that Armenia withdraw from Azerbaijani lands.
“It is regrettable that no such appeal has been made,” he told reporters.
The influential Turkish politician Devlet Bahceli spoke in the most hostile tone when he called on Azerbaijan to secure Nagorno Karabakh “by continuing to hit the head of Armenia”. Bahceli’s party supports President Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in parliament.
Despite Turkey’s denial of its military intervention in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian described Ankara’s behavior as worrying to the German newspaper Bild. “First I’m concerned that a third party is involved,” he said. If it was only related to Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, I would have become more optimistic about the possibilities of containing the conflict.
dead and wounded
The death toll continues to rise. Armenian officials in Nagorno Karabag said the total number of military deaths in the region reached 532, an increase of seven from Monday. Azerbaijan said 42 civilians have been killed and 206 injured since the fighting began on September 27. He did not disclose his losses from the military. At a briefing for the United Nations in Geneva, WHO spokesman Tariq Jasarevitch said that the conflict is contributing to the spread of the Covid-19 disease.
He added that new cases in Armenia doubled in the past two weeks through Monday, while new infections increased nearly 80 percent during the past seven days in Azerbaijan. He warned of “the direct interruption of medical care and increasing burdens on health systems that are already overloaded during the pandemic.”
Source: Reuters
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