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Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of a new offensive, while the Azeri Defense Ministry says it destroyed Armenian military equipment.
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have been involved in heavy fighting across the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, thwarting diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire to end the latest conflict that has killed hundreds of people.
Shushan Stepanyan, a spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry, said on Saturday that Azerbaijan had launched a new large-scale offensive, which was repelled by the Armenian-backed forces, who then launched a counterattack.
“There is intense fighting on other flanks,” he wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said its troops had destroyed a large amount of military equipment belonging to the Armenian army.
“Currently, the Azerbaijani army troops, successfully advancing in the planned directions, took possession of new bastions and carried out a clearing of the enemy’s territory,” the ministry said early Saturday morning.
Nagorno-Karabakh is controlled by ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia and has been the subject of several United Nations resolutions calling for an end to the occupation of Azerbaijani lands.
The leader of the separatist province said he was heading to the front and that the “final battle” for the region had begun.
World powers have been calling for a ceasefire since Sunday, when fighting broke out over the region, which is officially part of Azerbaijan.
On Friday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said it was prepared to work with international mediators France, Russia and the United States to reach a ceasefire with Azerbaijan. While the three countries called for an end to hostilities, Turkey has unconditionally supported its ally Azerbaijan and reiterated that what it called Armenian “occupiers” must withdraw.
“Superficial demands for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a permanent ceasefire will not be helpful this time,” Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Turkish state news agency Anadolu.
Armenian sources have put the death toll from fighting in the region, where some 145,000 people live, at more than 200, while Azerbaijan recently said 19 civilians had been killed and 60 wounded.
‘More troops in the conflict zone’
Armenia said Azerbaijan brought more troops to the conflict area, which the Baku government has not confirmed.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told Al Jazeera that his country is the guarantor of security in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Azerbaijan launched a direct attack against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia has certain obligations to provide security to the region,” he said.
“The Azerbaijani offensive on September 27 began with the bombardment of civilian settlements and this is a fact that we must acknowledge. When there is an attack, the first task is to protect yourself from that aggression, after which you can only talk about negotiations ”.
For his part, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Armenia has not been interested in peace for the past three decades, after ethnic tensions rose after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“They want to occupy our lands forever,” he told Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu. “If Armenia had shown good will and acted in accordance with many international resolutions, the conflict would have been resolved long ago.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia previously fought a war for Nagorno-Karabakh in the late 1980s and early 1990s while transitioning to independent countries amid the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The war, which ended with a fragile peace treaty in 1994, is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, including more than 1,000 civilians.
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