YEREVAN —
Armenia and
Azerbaijan reported nearly 100 troop deaths Tuesday in their worst
fighting since a 2020 war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
اضافة اعلان
The defense ministry in Baku said “50 Azerbaijani
servicemen died as a result of Armenia’s large-scale provocation,” while
Armenia earlier reported the deaths of at least 49 of its soldiers.
Azerbaijan on Tuesday accused Armenia of violating a
ceasefire brokered by Russia after a night of clashes that left dozens dead and
renewed fears of another all-out conflict between the historic foes.
Russia said it had reached a ceasefire between the
warring parties that brought several hours of relative calm, but Azerbaijan
later accused Armenian forces of “intensely” violating the agreement.
“Despite the declaration of a ceasefire since 9
(Moscow time, 0600 GMT), Armenia is intensively violating the ceasefire along
the border by using artillery and other heavy weapons,” Baku’s military said.
Armenia appealed to world leaders for help after the
fighting broke out, accusing Azerbaijan of trying to advance on its territory.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday
called the leaders of both countries, with his spokesman saying Washington
would “push for an immediate halt to fighting and a peace settlement” between
the neighbours.
Tuesday’s escalation came as Yerevan’s closest ally
Moscow — which deployed thousands of peacekeepers in the region after the 2020
war — is distracted by its six-month-old invasion of Ukraine.
Armenia’s defense ministry said clashes had subsided
after the ceasefire but that the situation on the border was still “extremely
tense”.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called
French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Blinken to
demand a response to “Azerbaijan’s aggressive acts”.
The defense ministry in Yerevan said the clashes
started early Tuesday, with Armenian territory coming under fire from
artillery, mortars and drones in the direction of the cities of Goris, Sotk,
and Jermuk.
“The enemy is trying to advance” into Armenian
territory, it said in a statement.
Azerbaijan, however, accused Armenia of “large-scale
subversive acts” near the districts of Dashkesan, Kelbajar and Lachin and said
its armed forces were taking “limited and targeted steps, neutralizing Armenian
firing positions”.
Baku’s long-standing political and military sponsor
Turkey blamed Armenia and urged it instead to “focus on peace negotiations”.
Iran, which shares a border with both countries,
urged “restraint” and a “peaceful resolution” to the fighting.
The European Union and the United Nations expressed
concerns over the escalation and called for an end to the fighting.
Before the ceasefire was announced, Armenia’s
security council asked for military help from Moscow, which is obligated under
a treaty to defend Armenia in the event of foreign invasion.
‘Russia in bad shape’
Armenian political analyst
Tatul Hakobyan said the escalation in fighting was a consequence of the
“deadlock” in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
“Azerbaijan wants to force Armenia to recognize
Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan,” he told AFP.
“The war in Ukraine has changed the balance of
forces in the region and Russia — which is a guarantor of peace in the region —
is in a very bad shape.
“In this situation, Azerbaijan wants to get
concessions from Armenia as soon as possible,” he added.
Last week, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing one
of its soldiers in a border shootout.
In August, Azerbaijan said it had lost a soldier and
the Karabakh army said two of its troops had been killed and more than a dozen
wounded.
The neighbors fought two wars — in the 1990s and in
2020 — over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated
enclave.
The six weeks of brutal fighting in the autumn of
2020 ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.
Under the deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory
it had controlled for decades and Moscow deployed about 2,000 Russian
peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce.
During EU-mediated talks in
Brussels in May and
April, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed to “advance
discussions” on a future peace treaty.
Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away
from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The ensuing conflict
claimed around 30,000 lives.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
