Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday (September 14th) accused each other of carrying out new attacks, in the aftermath of the worst violence between the two countries since the 2020 war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. At least 100 Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers died in the clashes on Tuesday, with Russia announcing a ceasefire, but both sides have already accused each other of violating it.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Baku “resumed its attacks with artillery, mortars and large-caliber weapons in the directions of Jermuk, Verin Chorja”. For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Armenian forces violated the ceasefire and “shelled our positions in the areas of Kelbajar and Lachin during the night with mortars and artillery”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two rival ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus, have fought each other in two wars over the past three decades for control of Nagorno-Karabakh. The new fighting illustrates how the situation remains explosive, in this region, but also on the official border between the two countries.
More than 6,500 people killed in 2020
Armenia called on the international community to react, while the European Union (EU), the United States, France, Russia, Iran and Turkey all expressed serious concern and called for an end violence.
Historically complicated, relations between Yerevan and Baku continue to be poisoned by their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave mainly populated by Armenians, which seceded from Azerbaijan with the support of Armenia.
After a first war that killed more than 30,000 people in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed again in the fall of 2020 for control of this mountainous area. More than 6,500 people have been killed in this new war. A ceasefire signed under the aegis of Moscow had sealed Armenia’s humiliating defeat.