2023-09-19 17:37:00
BAKU.- Azerbaijan launched a military operation in the Armenian-populated territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that he already left 25 dead on the Armenian separatist side, including two civilians, and hundreds of wounded this Tuesday, three years following the last war with Armenia over this mountainous enclave in the Caucasus, in dispute for three decades.
The Azeri Ministry of Defense announced during the morning the launch of “anti-terrorist operations”, aimed at neutralizing “the positions of the Armenian armed forces”.
Azerbaijan declared Tuesday that it had launched what it called an “anti-terrorist operation” once morest Armenian military positions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and officials in that region said there was heavy artillery fire around its capital. Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan
Baku justified its attack by the death early Tuesday of four police officers and two Azeri civilians, victims of the explosion of mines in an area under its control in Nagorno Karabakh, a region with an Armenian majority located in Azerbaijan.
The security services accused a group of Armenian separatist “saboteurs” of having planted those mines and thus committed an act of “terrorism”following other incidents attributed to the Armenian forces in recent hours.
The ministry did not initially provide details, but said it used high-precision weapons to “incapacitate front and rear positions, long-distance firing points of formations of the Armenian armed forces, as well as combat assets and military installations.”
“Only legitimate military targets are being incapacitated”the statement stated.
However, ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno Karabakh said in another statement that the region’s capital, Stepanakert, and other towns were under “intense” shell fire.
The Azeri military operation left for the moment 25 dead on the Armenian separatist side, including two civilians, the secessionist authorities of the enclave announced this followingnoon.
Azerbaijani military in Lachin, Nagorno KarabakhMINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF AZERBAI – MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF AZERBAI
“According to information received from the Stepanakert morgue by the human rights defender’s office, at 8:00 p.m. [hora local] hay 25 victims of the Azerbaijan terrorist attack, two of them civilians”Gegham Stepanian, defender of the rights of the separatist region, indicated on social networks, adding that The total number of injured is 138, of which 29 are civilians.
Tension has not stopped growing lately in this territory, the scene of two wars between Yerevan and Baku, the last of them at the end of 2020.
The Yerevan government was quick to denounce a “large-scale aggression”, aimed at undertaking “ethnic cleansing” in the enclave, and urged Russiawhich has a peacekeeping force there and is the guarantor of the 2020 ceasefire, to “stop Azeri aggression.”
Russia said it was notified of the Azeri operation “minutes” before, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked “urgently an end to the bloodshed (…) and a return to a peaceful agreement”.
The Russian administration is “concerned” by the “brutal escalation” of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and is trying to get both sides “return to the negotiating table,” the Kremlin said Tuesday.
“The main thing is to convince Yerevan and Baku to come to the negotiating table” and “avoid human losses,” said the Russian presidential spokesman. Dmitri Peskov to journalists.
Azerbaijan military in Nagorno Karabakh
While, Türkiyean ally of Azerbaijan, described Tuesday as “necessary” the Azeri military operation in the Nagorno Karabakh enclave, although he urged Baku and Yerevan to return to the negotiating table.
“Azerbaijan was forced to take measures that it considers necessary on its own sovereign territory,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, urging at the same time to “continue the process of negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
The EU urged Baku to end it “immediately.” And the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashynianurgently convened its security council.
“Azerbaijan’s military actions must stop immediately to allow a frank dialogue” between Azerbaijan “and the Armenians of Karabakh,” said the president of the European Council, Charles Michelin a message in X.
Children eat while sitting in a shelter during shelling in Stepanakert, in the separatist territory of Nagorno-KarabakhSiranush Sargsyan – AP
“We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for Azerbaijan to stop current military activities,” demanded the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Borrell “It requires the commitment of all parties to work towards negotiated results.”
Azeri diplomacy warned that peace will only be possible with “the unconditional and total withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Azeri region of Karabakh and the dissolution of the alleged separatist regime” in the enclave.
Armenia assured that it does not have armed forces deployed in Nagorno Karabakhimplying that its separatist allies were alone to face the “anti-terrorist operations” launched by Azerbaijan.
Armenian separatists claimed that Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert, and other cities were being targeted by “intense fire,” and accused Azerbaijan of being carrying out a “large-scale military operation.”
They also stated that they are making an effort to “resist” the Azeri army, which is trying to advance “deeply” into the enclave.
Baku said it informed Russia and Turkey of its operations, and assured that it only targets “legitimate military targets.” The country said it had opened humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave.
In this photograph posted by Gegham Stepanyan, Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh in the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan on his Twitter account on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, a residential apartment building is seen damaged following bombing in Stepanakert.Gegham Stepanyan, Ombudsman of H
Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed its independence from Baku when the USSR disintegrated, sparking an armed conflict won by Armenian separatists in the early 1990s.
Thirty years later, in the fall of 2020, The Azeri armed forces took their revenge and recovered numerous territories in the area.
After six weeks it was signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire, followed by the deployment of peacekeepers from Moscow. But armed incidents did not stop multiplying on the border.
In this photo taken from a video released by Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, smoke from an explosion rises over an area that Azerbaijan says hosts positions of Armenian forces in the separatist territory of Nagorno -Karabakh in Azerbaijan.Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan
The tension had eased a little this Monday, with the entry of humanitarian aid to Nagorno Karabakh. Yerevan had accused Azerbaijan of causing a crisis in this territory by keeping the Lachin corridor, the only one that connects Armenia with the enclave, blocked since the end of 2022.
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