A state of calm prevails over the border areas between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which witnessed violent battles between the forces of the two countries at dawn on Tuesday, killing regarding 100 soldiers, at a time when international mediations are active to maintain the armistice agreement and the cease-fire between the two sides.
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan announced the killing of 50 soldiers, in large-scale clashes with Armenian forces, in the border areas, and accused the Armenian forces of carrying out large-scale “acts of sabotage” near the border provinces of Dasheksan, Kalpajar and Lachin, noting that its army positions were bombed. , especially mortars.
On the other hand, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, announced the killing of 49 Armenian soldiers in the clashes with the Azerbaijani army. The Armenian Ministry of Defense accused Azerbaijan of launching intense artillery shelling and heavy caliber firearms on Armenian military sites in the border towns of Goris, Sotk and Jermuk.
In an attempt to stop the latest round of violence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the launch of the CSTO summit via video technology, with the participation of President Vladimir Putin, to discuss the tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, at the request of Armenia once morest the background of the escalation on its borders with Azerbaijan. The Kremlin restrained and adhered to the cease-fire.
France is scheduled to present the confrontations between Armenia and Azerbaijan to the UN Security Council, according to what the Elysee announced, while the Secretary-General of the United Nations called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to take immediate measures to defuse the tension, exercise maximum restraint and solve all persistent problems through dialogue.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also called for full respect for the ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia following the renewed fighting on the border between the two countries, stressing the need for the two countries’ forces to return to their previous positions before the new military escalation.
In turn, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to stop hostilities and said his country would seek an immediate end to hostilities and a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Since the end of the second round of battles in the fall of 2020 between Armenia and Azerbaijan, over the disputed Karabakh region between them, the two countries have frequent border clashes. Last week, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing one of its soldiers in an exchange of fire on the border.
The violence threatens to reignite the conflict in the Karabakh region, despite the presence of Russian forces in charge of supervising the cease-fire in force between Armenia and Azerbaijan, since the signing of the agreement between the two countries, which entered into force on November 10, 2020.
Source: june
