BAKU: Azerbaijan despatched troops backed by artillery strikes into Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday (Sep 19) in an try and carry the breakaway area to heel by pressure, elevating the specter of a brand new warfare with its neighbour Armenia.
Karabakh is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory however a part of it’s run by separatist Armenian authorities who say the realm is their ancestral homeland. The South Caucasus area has been on the centre of two wars – the newest in 2020 – for the reason that 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to as on Azerbaijan to halt its operation instantly, saying it was worsening an already dire humanitarian scenario in Karabakh – a reference to a prolonged de facto blockade of the area by Baku.
The European Union, France and Germany additionally condemned Azerbaijan’s navy motion, calling on it to return to talks on the way forward for Karabakh with Armenia.
Loud and repeated shelling was audible from social media footage filmed in Stepanakert, the capital of mountainous Karabakh, referred to as Khankendi by Azerbaijan, on Tuesday.
Hikmet Hajiyev, overseas coverage adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, stated Baku had deployed floor forces which he stated had damaged via Armenian strains in a number of locations and achieved a few of their major targets, one thing Armenian separatist forces denied.
A Baku defence ministry assertion stated Azerbaijani forces had up to now seized greater than 60 navy posts and destroyed as much as 20 navy automobiles with different {hardware}.
Karabakh separatist authorities stated 25 folks had been killed, together with two civilians, and 138 injured because of Baku’s navy motion. Inhabitants of some villages had been evacuated, they stated.
Reuters couldn’t confirm both aspect’s assertions.
It was not clear whether or not Baku’s actions would set off a full-scale battle dragging in Armenia. However there have been indicators of political fallout in Yerevan the place Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan – seen as too pro-Western by Russia, Armenia’s conventional supporter – spoke of requires a coup towards him.
Some Armenians gathered in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to demand motion from the federal government amid studies of clashes between police and crowds.
The combating in Karabakh might additionally alter the geopolitical stability within the South Caucasus area, which is crisscrossed with oil and fuel pipelines, and the place Russia – distracted by its personal warfare in Ukraine – is searching for to protect its affect within the face of higher exercise from Turkey, which backs Azerbaijan.