Azerbaijan and Armenia fight for Nagorno-Karabakh – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a bombing was reported in the area, which has been fought since 1988.

Both military forces and civilians will be killed, international news agencies report. This has not been officially confirmed.

Armenian separatists, who control the Nagorno-Karabakh region, say Azerbaijani forces have shelled the main city, Stepanakert, and two other nearby cities.

The Armenian city of Vardenis is also said to have been attacked. Also, there must have been attacks on the demilitarized zone, which has been created around the enclave.

Defense officials for the separatists say they shot down or destroyed four helicopter gunships and 15 drones and struck 10 tanks during their retaliatory strikes, writes the Reuters news agency.

Shortly after the fighting, full military mobilization and a state of emergency was declared, first in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and then throughout Armenia.

– Gprepare to sacrifice your homeland, writes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pasjinian on social media.

He claims that Azerbaijani forces attacked a civilian area within Nagorno-Karabakh.

– Azerbaijan has again declared war on the Armenian people. We are on the brink of an all-out war in the South Caucasus, with the unpredictable consequences it could have, Pasjinian said in a statement broadcast on Armenian television.

Azerbaijan rejects

The Azerbaijani government, for its part, claims that it was the Armenian separatists who attacked first. And that the defense forces of Azerbaijan responded.

The country’s Defense Ministry denies that helicopters and combat tanks were hit. But in a speech, also broadcast on television, President Ilham Aliyev called for “losses”, both in the armed forces and among the civilian population.

According to a government spokesman, his forces have taken control of six villages within Nagorno-Karabakh, but this has not been confirmed by independent sources.

Ask the parties to reconsider

France urges the parties to reconsider so that the conflict does not escalate again.

“The French authorities are deeply concerned by the major clashes. The parties must negotiate a lasting solution to the conflict,” said a statement quickly issued by the French Foreign Ministry.

France is part of the so-called Minsk group together with Russia and the United States, which have mediated the conflict.

Russia immediately calls on both parties to lay down their arms and respect the previously agreed ceasefire.

Germany agrees with the call, as does Iran.

Even Pope Francis is involved and expresses concern for development.

Call on Turkey to stay away

A full-blown conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia could have major consequences if it ends up mobilizing major regional players like Turkey and Russia.

Turkey, which is a close ally of Azerbaijan and has strong cultural ties to the country, believes that the Armenian attack should be condemned and says it is a “dangerous provocation”.

“We will support our Azerbaijani brothers with all our means in their fight to protect their territorial integrity,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a statement.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pasjinian calls on the international community to stall Turkey. It warns that the Turkish intervention will have major negative consequences for the entire South Caucasus.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu is said to have been on the phone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, according to international news agencies.

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh breaks out on a regular basis.

In June this year, clashes broke out in the area again, which resulted in 16 deaths. But today’s fights are the worst since 2016.

I’ve been arguing for decades

Nagorno-Karabakh is located as an island in Azerbaijan. The vast majority of the inhabitants are Armenians.

In 1988, Armenia demanded that the area be transferred to what was then the Armenian Soviet Republic. It led to violent clashes.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, a full-scale war broke out. With the support of Armenia, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh managed to take control of the region and several surrounding areas.

About 800,000 Azerbaijanis were forced to flee.

The parties entered into a ceasefire in 1994. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE, is a mediator in the conflict, but there has been little progress in the negotiations.

The so-called Minsk group, which is made up of France, Russia and the United States, has collaborated as an intermediary. But their efforts have also not brought the parties closer. The last major mediation attempt was made in 2010.

Nagorno-Karabakh is not recognized internationally as a separate state, but as part of Azerbaijan.

The oil-rich country has spent a lot of money to arm its military forces in recent years and has vowed to take back Nagorno-Karabakh by force.

Armenia, for its part, has announced that it will defend the disputed territory, which the separatists have declared independent, but which is largely dependent on the support of Armenia.

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