2023-09-20 07:00:00
AFP
Azerbaijan launches offensive in Karabakh, calls on Armenians to capitulate
Azerbaijan launched a military operation in Nagorno Karabakh on Tuesday, three years following the previous war, demanding the surrender of its Armenian adversary in this region disputed for decades with Armenia. The Azerbaijani presidency called in the early evening the forces Armenian separatists from Karabakh to surrender their arms, a sine qua non condition for the start of negotiations. “The illegal Armenian armed forces must raise the white flag, surrender all weapons and the illegal regime must dissolve. Otherwise the anti-terrorist operations will continue until to the end”, indicated the Azerbaijani presidential administration, echoing its diplomacy which demanded a “total and unconditional” surrender. She proposed, in the event of capitulation, talks “with representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh in Yevlakh”, an Azerbaijani town 295 km west of Baku. Before that, the Karabakh authorities had requested a cease-fire. immediate fire and negotiations. The fighting killed at least two civilians and injured 23 others on the Armenian side, Armenian separatist authorities said. The Azerbaijani side reported a civilian killed by shrapnel. 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”. Yerevan said it had no troops in Karabakh, suggesting that the separatist forces were alone once morest the Azerbaijani army. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced Tuesday morning the launch of “anti-terrorist operations” once morest the Armenian forces, following the death of six Azerbaijanis in the explosion of mines on a road site. He assures to preserve the lives of civilians and to use “high precision” weapons. Tensions have been increasing for months around Nagorno Karabakh, a secessionist territory of Azerbaijan with an Armenian majority, which has already been at the heart of two wars between Yerevan and Baku, the last of which lasted six weeks. – “Intensive shooting” – Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused Baku of wanting to “train the ‘Armenia in hostilities’. Separatists claim that several towns in Nagorno Karabakh, including the capital Stepanakert, are targeted by “intensive fire”, which also targets civilian infrastructure. The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is for “stable” time, however, specified Nikol Pashinian. 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. Demonstrators chanted “Pashinian traitor”. The Armenian opposition has tried several times for three years to obtain the departure of the Armenian leader, accusing him of being responsible for the military defeat during the war of autumn 2020 in Nagorno Karabakh.- “Inadmissible” -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 their start.The Kremlin, ” concerned”, said through the voice of his spokesperson trying to convince Armenia and Azerbaijan to return “to the negotiating table”, which the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh also called on Baku to do.Nikol Pashinian n 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 spokesperson. words of the Prime Minister. 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, has judged that Azerbaijan had to “immediately” cease its operation. – No peace agreement – 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 Choucha and Fizouli , two towns in Nagorno Karabakh under the control of Azerbaijan. The region is one of the most 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”. At the same time, Baku accused the Armenian army of having injured two Azerbaijani soldiers in the northeast of Karabakh, and of having fired with small arms towards Azerbaijani positions in the district of Gadabay, on the border between the two countries. Tensions had however decreased a notch on Monday with the arrival of humanitarian aid in the enclave, subject for months to an Azerbaijani blockade which caused serious shortages food and medicine. Yerevan accuses Baku of provoking a humanitarian crisis for the purposes of ethnic cleansing by blocking the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia. The previous conflict, in 2020, led to a Armenian military rout, Yerevan having had to cede territories in and around Nagorno Karabakh to Baku. A ceasefire, negotiated by Russia, was signed, without ever reaching a peace agreement.bur-led/alf/ ybl
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