The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Azerbaijani “aggression” against Karabakh
Karabakh:
Azerbaijan launched a military operation in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on Tuesday, demanding the total withdrawal of Armenian troops from the disputed mountain region as a condition for peace.
Fears of a new war have grown in recent months, with Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of troop buildup and decrying a blockade of the only land link to Nagorno-Karabakh.
An AFP journalist in the separatist stronghold of Stepanakert said explosions could be heard in the city, while Azerbaijan said it was using “highly accurate weapons on the front line and at depth”.
“Local anti-terrorist measures have been launched in the region,” Baku’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said it had opened “humanitarian corridors and reception points” to allow civilians to leave.
“We reiterate that the civilian population and civilian infrastructure are not targets,” the statement said.
The latest escalation comes almost three years after a brief but brutal war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the mountainous region.
The ex-Soviet rivals in the Caucasus have been embroiled in a decades-long dispute over Karabakh, with large-scale hostilities breaking out in the 1990s and into 2020.
Intensive fire
The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Azerbaijani “aggression” against Karabakh.
“On September 19, Azerbaijan unleashed another large-scale aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, aiming to complete its policy of ethnic cleansing,” the Foreign Ministry said.
It said Russian peacekeepers stationed in the region must “take clear and unequivocal steps to stop Azerbaijan’s aggression.”
An Armenia-based separatist organization said on social media that “Stepanakert and other towns and villages are under intense fire,” and accused Azerbaijan of launching a “large-scale military offensive.”
Azerbaijan justified the mission by citing “systematic” shelling by Armenian-backed forces and accusing them of carrying out “reconnaissance activities” and strengthening defensive positions.
“There is also a strengthening of fighting positions with personnel, armored vehicles, artillery and other weapons,” Azerbaijan said, accusing the separatists of “a high level of combat readiness.”
Regional power brokers Russia and Turkey, which oversee a vulnerable peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, had been briefed on Azerbaijan’s military activities in Karabakh, Baku said.
Moscow urged the parties to the conflict to respect a peace deal and end the “bloodshed.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it had been notified “minutes” in advance of the start of Azerbaijan’s operation.
Mine explodes
The fighting came just hours after Azerbaijan said four police officers and two civilians had been killed in mine explosions in Nagorno-Karabakh, with authorities blaming separatists.
The dawn deaths came after Armenian separatists said they had reached an agreement with Azerbaijani authorities to resume aid deliveries to Karabakh.
Baku security forces said two civilians had been killed in Khojavend district and four police officers had been killed in another mine explosion on the way to the site.
Their vehicle struck “a mine laid in a tunnel road under construction by illegal Armenian armed groups,” a statement said.
Azerbaijan said the incident took place “in the zone of temporary deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent” dispatched by Moscow in 2020 as part of a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan said the police officers were killed on the road to Azerbaijani-controlled Shusha, which was recaptured from separatists in 2020.
During the six-week 2020 war, Azerbaijan regained control over key areas of Karabakh, including the culturally revered city of Shusha.
But other parts of the region, including the capital Stepanakert, remain under the control of Armenian separatists.
Azerbaijan said the road to Shusha was built after capturing swaths of land from Armenia in 2020.
“During the construction of the road, the area along the route was cleared of mines,” Baku said.
Nagorno-Karabakh is heavily mined. Over the past thirty years, hundreds of Azerbaijanis have been injured or killed by landmines laid by Armenian forces.
Azerbaijan said on Tuesday that more than 300 of its nationals have been injured or killed by mines since 2020.
Both Azerbaijani and Armenian armies used them during a bloody conflict in the early 1990s.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said landmines were the main obstacle to the return of displaced people to areas recaptured from Armenian separatists in 2020.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
