Azerbaijan launched a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday, three years after the previous war, demanding the surrender of its Armenian adversary in this region disputed for decades with Armenia. At the start of the evening, the Azerbaijani presidency called on the Armenian separatist forces in Karabakh to lay down their arms, a sine qua non condition for the start of negotiations.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars for the sovereignty of this mountainous territory, populated mainly by Armenians but internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Tensions between the two countries arose on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, with France calling for an “emergency” meeting of the Security Council to take note of an “illegal” and “unjustifiable” offensive carried out through Baku to Nagorno-Karabakh. The emergency meeting of the Security Council for Nagorno-Karabakh could take place “in the coming days,” two diplomatic sources told Agence France Presse, speaking on Thursday. Paris hopes to obtain as unanimous a conviction as possible.
The fighting killed at least 29 people, including 2 civilians, and injured 80 others on the Armenian side, Armenian separatist authorities said. The Azerbaijani side reported a civilian killed by shrapnel. Separatists say several towns in Nagorno-Karabakh, including the capital Stepanakert, are being targeted by “intensive firing,” which also targets civilian infrastructure. The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is currently “stable”, however, specified Nikol Pashinian. The Azerbaijani army says it has captured more than 60 Armenian positions in its Karabakh offensive.
In the evening, other figures were communicated on hours.
Armenian diplomacy denounced a “large-scale aggression” for the purposes of “ethnic cleansing”. She also judged that Russia, guarantor of a ceasefire dating from 2020 with peace forces on the ground, must “stop Azerbaijani aggression”. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused Baku of wanting to “drag Armenia into hostilities”. The Prime Minister, who convened his Security Council, also denounced calls for a “coup d’état” in Armenia, while television reported hundreds of demonstrators massed in front of the government headquarters in Yerevan.
Baku said it had informed Russia and Turkey of its operations in the enclave, and Moscow then said it had only been warned “a few minutes” before they began. The Kremlin, “concerned,” said through its spokesperson that it was trying to convince Armenia and Azerbaijan to return “to the negotiating table,” something the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities also called on Baku to do. TO DO.
Russia also called on Wednesday evening to “immediately cease bloodshed, end hostilities and stop civilian casualties” in the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region. “In connection with the sharp escalation of the armed confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh, we urge the parties to the conflict to immediately stop the bloodshed, put an end to hostilities and stop civilian casualties,” the Russian Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement.
Nikol Pashinian did not report discussions with Vladimir Putin, but had two telephone conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, all three deeming the use of force “inadmissible”, according to the Prime Minister’s spokesperson. France has also requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who has led mediation in the past between the two countries, ruled that Azerbaijan must “immediately” cease its operation.
For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he “supports” Azerbaijan’s military operation. “We support the measures taken by Azerbaijan (…) to defend its territorial integrity,” said the leader in a message published Tuesday evening on the social network Azerbaijani territory”, and that for this reason “The imposition of another status will never be accepted”.
Emmanuel Macron, for his part, condemned, via an official press release published in the evening, “with the greatest firmness the use of force by Azerbaijan”. The President of the Republic also called on Baku for “an immediate cessation of the offensive.” The head of state spoke on the telephone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, urging him “to resume discussions without delay to find a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh”, and “to achieve peace fair and lasting relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan”.
Baku justified its operation by the death of four police officers and two Azerbaijani civilians in the explosion of mines on the site of a tunnel under construction between Shusha and Fizouli, two towns in Nagorno Karabakh under Azerbaijan control. The region is one of the most heavily mined in the former USSR, but Azerbaijani security services believe that a group of Armenian separatist “saboteurs” laid these mines, committing an act of “terrorism.”
