Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh | The attacks left at least 25 dead on the Armenian side

2023-09-20 05:01:00

Azerbaijan launched a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday, three years after the previous conflict, and called for the “total and unconditional” withdrawal of its Armenian rival from this mountainous enclave in the Caucasus that has been disputed for three decades. The Armenian government says it has no troops in Nagorno-Karabakh and called the offensive “ethnic cleansing.” The fighting left at least 25 dead on the Armenian side, including two civilians, and another civilian died in the Azerbaijani ranks, according to reports from both sides.

The Azerbaijani presidency called on the Armenian separatist forces to lay down their arms and “raise the white flag” before sitting down to negotiate “with the representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh” in Yevlax, an Azerbaijani city. Before this demand for capitulation by Baku, the regional authorities of the disputed enclave had called for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations.

Separatist authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh indicated that several cities in the enclave, including the regional capital Stepanakert, are subject to “intense shooting” against civilian infrastructure. The fighting is taking place “along the entire front line” and the Azerbaijani army attacks with “artillery and missile fire, offensive drones and fighter jets,” the separatist enclave’s army reported.

“Ethnic cleansing”

According to the Ombudsman of the separatist territory, Guegam Stepanián, the military operation caused at least 25 deaths and 138 injuries, to which Baku added one dead Azerbaijani civilian. The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinián, maintained that this is a “land operation of ethnic cleansing” of the Armenians in the territory, with the aim of taking Karabakh positions and localities that Baku does not yet control under Azerbaijani control.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement blaming the “failure of international actors to lift the blockade and prevent the genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh.” The Nagorno-Karabakh Information Center noted that “the Karabakh side addresses Azerbaijan with the call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and settlement of the current situation at the negotiating table.”

The presidency of Azerbaijan set as a condition for sitting down to negotiate with “representatives of the Armenians” in Nagorno Karabakh and the cessation of the military operation that “the Armenian Armed Forces lay down their arms” and that the “illegal regime” created on Azerbaijani territory be dissolve.

In the vicinity of the Armenian government headquarters, several hundred demonstrators protested against the operation initiated by Azerbaijan. Some protesters tried to break the police cordon and access the building located in the center of the Armenian capital, Yerevan. The police repressed protesters with stun grenades who, in addition to condemning Azerbaijan, were calling for the resignation of the Armenian prime minister, whom they accused of inaction.

Repudiation of violence

Russia, which expressed its deep concern about the “abrupt” escalation of the situation and called for stopping military actions and returning to the path of political-diplomatic settlement, noted that Russian peacekeepers received information about the Azerbaijani operation a few minutes before. from the beginning. Armenian diplomacy urged Russian peacekeepers to take “clear and unequivocal measures to put an end to the aggression,” and also called on the UN Security Council and its international partners to react to Baku’s aggression.

The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, called on Azerbaijan to end military activities, as did the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. The presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, spoke with Pashinián. The first conveyed his intention to convene a session of the UN Security Council, while the second stressed the “inadmissibility of the use of force and the need to de-escalate the situation through international mechanisms.”

In the Azerbaijani capital, the Turkish defense and foreign ministers spoke with their Azerbaijani counterparts and stated that “Turkey, as always, is on Azerbaijan’s side.” Nagorno-Karabakh is one of the most mined regions of the former Soviet Union. Their explosions regularly kill, but Azerbaijani security services believe that it was a group of Armenian separatist “saboteurs” who planted these mines, committing an act of terrorism.

Both towns have been at odds since 1988 for control of that enclave, which belongs to Azerbaijan but is populated by about 120,000 Armenians. The previous conflict, in 2020, ended with a military defeat for Armenia, which had to cede territories in Nagorno Karabakh and its surroundings to Azerbaijan.