Azerbaijan announced on Tuesday September 19 that it had launched a military operation, described as “anti-terrorist”, targeting “Armenian forces” in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Detonations were heard by an Agence France-Presse journalist in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert. The defender of the rights of the separatist region, Gegham Stepanyan, communicated a provisional human toll of two civilians killed and twenty-three injured.
Armenian separatist authorities have confirmed a “large-scale military operation against the Republic of Artsakh [the name given by Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh]”. Stepanakert and other towns in the region are being targeted by “intensive shooting,” added the representation of separatists in Armenia on Facebook.
“Azerbaijan has launched a ground operation aimed at the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Karabakh,” said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in a televised statement, assuring that the situation at the border was “stable” and that the Armenia was “not engaged in armed actions.” Mr. Pashinian also called on the UN and Russia to “take action.”
“We must not allow certain (…) forces to strike a blow against the Armenian state. There are already calls from different places to carry out a coup in Armenia,” he said in a speech to the nation, as Armenian television reported hundreds of protesters gathering in front of the seat of the Armenian government in Yerevan.
“False statements”
The separatist forces of Nagorno-Karabakh claimed, for their part, to try to “resist” the Azerbaijani army which is trying to advance “deep” into the enclave. “The Azerbaijani armed forces are trying to advance in depth (…) The defense forces continue to resist Azerbaijan’s offensive across the entire line of contact,” they said on X (formerly Twitter).
The Baku authorities added that they considered peace possible, on condition of a “total” Armenian withdrawal. “The only way to achieve peace (…) is the unconditional and total withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces (…) and the dissolution of the so-called separatist regime,” Azerbaijani diplomacy said in a statement. The Armenian Defense Ministry, for its part, assured that it did not have armed forces deployed in the region, condemning Baku’s “false declarations”.
Russia called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to “end the bloodshed” in Nagorno-Karabakh and return to “a peaceful settlement.” “All stages of a peaceful solution are set out in the agreements signed in 2020 and 2022,” added Russian diplomatic spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
France on Tuesday condemned “with the greatest firmness” the launch by Azerbaijan of a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh and requested “the emergency convening of a meeting of the United Nations Security Council”.
“No pretext can justify such unilateral action, which threatens thousands of civilians already affected by months of illegal blockade and goes against the efforts of the international community to reach a negotiated settlement,” the ministry said of French Foreign Affairs, urging Baku “to immediately cease its offensive and return to respect for international law.”
“Azerbaijan’s military actions must stop immediately to allow a genuine dialogue between Baku and the Armenians of Karabakh,” European Council President Charles Michel said on Tuesday on X. “This military escalation must not be used as a pretext to force the exile of local populations,” Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, also said in a statement.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, Azerbaijani authorities announced the death of four police officers and two Azerbaijani civilians in the mine explosion in Nagorno-Karabakh, and accused a group of Armenian separatist “saboteurs” of having committed these acts of “terrorism”.
At the beginning of August, Armenia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council in the face of the “deteriorating humanitarian situation” in the region. The Lachin corridor, the only land link between Armenia and Karabakh, was first obstructed by Azerbaijanis posing as environmental demonstrators, before Baku set up, on July 11, a road blockade at the entrance to this road citing security reasons.
At the UN Security Council meeting on August 16, France, the United Kingdom and the United States urged Baku to ensure free movement on the Lachin road, but no declaration or resolution was voted on at the end of the meeting – a semi-failure for the Armenians. Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region with an Armenian majority located in Azerbaijan, was the scene of two wars in the early 1990s, then in the fall of 2020. It is one of the most mined areas in the former USSR . Explosions regularly cause casualties there.
