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Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region has escalated dramatically after Baku accused Armenian forces of firing rockets at Ganja, which is outside the disputed territory.
At least one civilian was killed and four more wounded in Sunday’s attack in Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert.
The incident brings the two former Soviet republics one step closer to outright war after eight days of fighting and threatens to bring regional powers Turkey, Russia and Iran into a battle for influence in the sensitive South Caucasus.
Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said there were also civilian casualties in another Azerbaijani region, Beylagan, which borders Nagorno-Karabakh, and that his country would not hesitate to retaliate against the Armenian bombardments of Azerbaijan’s population centers.
Armenia denied directing fire “of any kind” towards Azerbaijan. The Armenian leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, however, confirmed on Facebook that his forces had attacked a military air base in Ganja, but then stopped firing to avoid civilian casualties.
While the conflict has centuries-long roots, a bitter war between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over Nagorno-Karabakh was sparked by the collapse of the Soviet Union. A ceasefire in 1994 left Armenia in full control of the area and surrounding enclaves, internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory.
The region has long attracted the concern of the West because it is an important corridor for oil and gas pipelines to world markets.
Tensions between the two neighbors over the past 30 years have traditionally been mediated by Russia, which has a military alliance with Armenia but also maintains close ties with Baku’s ruling elite and sells arms to both sides.
Turkey, which has strong cultural and economic ties with Azerbaijan, is considered to have fueled new hostilities by declaring its unconditional support for Azerbaijan when fighting broke out last week. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated: “For there to be a solution, the [Armenian] the occupants must withdraw from these lands. “
Ankara and Baku have conducted large-scale joint military drills since clashes in July that killed 17 people in a different border region.
Casualties from last week’s fighting have risen to the hundreds, although precise figures are impossible to obtain. Both Baku and Yerevan accuse each other of attacking civilians.
Calls from Russia, the US, France and the EU for a ceasefire have so far been ignored and the violence appears to be getting worse. Armenia says the Karabakh towns of Stepanakert and Martakert have been hit by Azerbaijani planes and long-range missiles, while Azerbaijan said on Saturday its forces had captured a number of villages. Armenia acknowledged that ethnic Armenian fighters were under pressure in some places and said the situation on the ground was fluctuating.
The fighting has also been characterized by accusations on both sides of foreign involvement in the escalation of violence.
The Guardian has reported that 1,000 Syrian fighters working for private Turkish security companies have been deployed to Karabakh to support the Azerbaijani armed forces, which has been rejected by both Ankara and Baku.
The bodies of at least 50 Syrian fighters were repatriated to the last corner of the country controlled by the rebels on Saturday, and some funerals were held for the dead on the same day, several Syrian families said.
Earlier this week, Armenia also accused a Turkish air force F-16 jet of shooting down an Armenian fighter jet, but did not release any material evidence.
Tahir Taghizadeh, the Azerbaijani ambassador to the UK, told The Guardian that Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan was “only limited to military training and diplomatic pressure on Armenia.”
Baku says Yerevan is being aided by fighters from the militant group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in Syria and Iraq, but has also not produced any evidence.
Iran, which has a sizeable Azerbaijani population and shares borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan, has denied reports that it is providing weapons and military equipment to Armenia and has officially called on both countries to scale down.
Nagorno-Karabakh is now the third arena in which Moscow and Ankara engage in a volatile power struggle, after Syria and Libya. Turkey has facilitated the deployment of up to 16,000 Syrian mercenaries to Libya’s battlefields so far this year.
