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“I have declared the military status” and the mobilization of all conscripts over the age of 18, said President Araik Arutiunian of Nagorno-Karabakh at an urgent parliamentary session in Stepanakert, the main city of the region.
“The government has decided to declare a state of war and a global mobilization,” wrote Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Facebook.
He also instructed citizens to “prepare to defend our holy homeland.”
“Get ready to defend our holy homeland,” Pasinian wrote on Facebook.
Fierce fighting broke out on the Nagorno-Karabakh front line on Sunday morning. Both Baku and Yerevan reported civilian casualties.
Russia calls for an “immediate” ceasefire
In the wake of fierce clashes between the Armenian separatists who control Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Russia on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire and talks.
“We call on the parties to immediately cease fire and begin negotiations to stabilize the situation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Armenian separatists who control Nagorno-Karabakh, which has separated from Azerbaijan, said that two Azerbaijani military helicopters had been shot down by separatist forces following the bombing of Nagorno-Karabakh in Baku on Sunday.
Azerbaijan started “active bombardments” along the Nagorno-Karabakh front line on Sunday morning, Karabakh officials said. They say civilian targets are also being shelled, including Stepanakert, the main city in the region.
The Separatist Defense Ministry announced that its forces had shot down two Azerbaijani helicopters and three drones.
Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said it had launched a “counterattack to stop the fighting in Armenia and ensure the safety of the population.”
Armenian separatists took control of Nagorno-Karabakh from Baku during the 1991-1994 war, which claimed 30,000 lives. lives.
Although negotiations have been going on through Russia, the United States and France since 1994 to try to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, one of the biggest conflicts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, no solution has yet been found. long-term.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan, whose military spending exceeds the entire budget of the Armenian government and which invests generously in its military forces, has repeatedly promised Nagorno-Karabakh that it will recover by force.
Meanwhile, Armenia vows to defend a region that has declared its independence but is heavily dependent on Yerevan.
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