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The Nagorno-Karabakh region belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but in practice it is ruled by Armenians. The regional and historically protracted conflict also includes Turkey, which supports the Azeris, and Russia, which supports the Armenians.
The risk of an escalation of the conflict led France and Germany to jointly demand that the UN Security Council be convened for a crisis meeting on Tuesday.
Belgium, the United Kingdom and Estonia, which are part of the Security Council, also support the proposal, according to diplomatic sources.
The meeting will likely take place behind closed doors.
One of the permanent members of the Security Council is Russia, which with its veto power can stop the UN’s attempts to act.
Battles on tough terrain
The growing international unrest comes after an escalation of regional struggles and initiatives.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry says its armed forces “destroyed several of the enemy’s artillery units in a targeted attack. However, the Azerbaijani authorities do not say how many of their own soldiers died in the escalation of the conflict.
The separatists, supported by Armenia, claim that the areas lost in the fighting have been regained.
The AFP news agency reports that about 70 people have died, nine of whom were civilians. Among the civilian victims, five are said to be members of the same Azeri family, while a woman and a child died on the Armenian side.
Combat Vehicle Burning
The footage shows how combat vehicles are hit in what are likely to be grenade attacks and artillery shelling, tanks exploding or burning in the large, arid plains that make up part of the country. But the documentation is part of the propaganda war, and there are few independent observers in the region.
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia are mobilizing and enforcing martial law in some areas, the BBC reports.
The escalation in recent days will cause both Turkey and Russia to slightly raise the tone over the area. Ankara has officially announced that it supports Azerbaijan, while Moscow supports Armenia.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Armenia would withdraw its forces and end the “occupation” of the region.
Russia, in turn, is demanding negotiations and the Russian government is urging the two conflicting parties to immediately cease all military activity.
The Kremlin is closely monitoring the situation, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who says Russia wants a diplomatic solution to the conflict, rather than a military one.
The fall of the Soviet Union
Relations between the two countries have strained since they became independent in connection with the fall of the Soviet Union, although the region has been a potential powder keg in the past. Nagorno-Karabakh was sandwiched between different ethnic groups in the former Soviet Union and has long been one of the most dangerous “latent conflicts” in the world, writes the BBC.
During the years around 1990, a war was fought and, after a ceasefire in 1994, Armenian-backed separatists have in practice been in control of the area. France, Russia and the United States created the so-called “Minsk group” and tried to mediate the conflict, but recent talks failed in 2010.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan make historical claims about Nagorno-Karabakh.
The conflict dates back a long time and the entire area ended under Russian rule in the early 1800s. The violent clashes turned into a full-scale war after Armenia and Azerbaijan declared independent states in 1991 in connection with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence the same year, but it has not been recognized by the outside world, not even by Armenia. In reality, the area functions as an independent state under the protection of Armenia.
Up to 30,000 people, mainly Azeris, died during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which lasted until 1994.
It was with the help of Russia that a ceasefire was concluded in 1994. Since then, peace talks have been held, but no peace agreement has been signed, the conflict has not been resolved, and fighting has continued to break out.
The area formally belongs to Azerbaijan, but the majority of the 150,000 inhabitants are Armenians.
Source: Landguiden / UI
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