The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

New fights in Karabakh, Turkey accused of fueling conflict

2020-10-02T07:42:10.198Z


The fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis on the Nagorno Karabakh front rages on Friday, October 2, and grievances multiply against Turkey, accused of having " crossed a red line " with the sending of " jihadists " in support of the Azerbaijan. Read also: The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Ankara's new challenge in Moscow The fighting continued into the night, with each side claiming to inflic


The fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis on the Nagorno Karabakh front rages on Friday, October 2, and grievances multiply against Turkey, accused of having "

crossed a red line

" with the sending of "

jihadists

" in support of the Azerbaijan.

Read also: The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Ankara's new challenge in Moscow

The fighting continued into the night, with each side claiming to inflict significant losses on the other.

In Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, residents have had to take cover several times for fear of bombing, but neither side appears to have gained the advantage.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who already has difficult relations with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on the night of Thursday to Friday that 300 “

jihadist

fighters

left Syria to join Azerbaijan via Turkey.

A "

red line

" according to him.

Russia had reported similar information, without however directly accusing Ankara, with whom it has a complicated but pragmatic relationship.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian further accused the Turkish side of being involved militarily in the conflict alongside Azerbaijan with "

military vehicles, weapons, as well as military advisers

" and by transporting "

thousands of mercenaries. and terrorists

”towards the Karabakh front, in an interview with Le Figaro.

Competing powers

A direct Turkish intervention would constitute a major turning point and an internationalization of this conflict in a region, the South Caucasus, where multiple powers are in competition: Russia, Turkey, Iran, Western countries ...

Nagorny Karabakh, mostly populated by Armenians, seceded from Azerbaijan, leading to a war in the early 1990s that left 30,000 dead.

The front has since been almost frozen despite regular clashes, especially in 2016. Sunday, the deadliest fighting in years resumed, the two camps accusing each other of having provoked hostilities.

Read also: Nagorno-Karabakh: Putin, Macron and Trump together call for an immediate ceasefire

Since then, Azerbaijan has vowed to continue its operations until the reconquest of the territory or the "

total withdrawal

" of the Armenians.

Yerevan and the Karabakh authorities have said they are equally determined in the fight.

Both sides have largely ignored calls from the entire international community, with the notable exception of Turkey, to silence the guns, following the example of a joint statement Thursday by Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Poutin and Donald Trump, whose three countries have been leading the OSCE mediation on Nagorny Karabakh since the early 1990s.

According to Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu agreed on Thursday that their two countries were ready for "

close coordination to stabilize the situation

" in Nagorno Karabakh.

Ankara did not speak out, however.

Russia maintains cordial relations with the two former Soviet republics, but it is closer to Armenia which belongs to a military alliance dominated by Moscow.

Conflicting claims

The Karabakh Defense Ministry judged the night from Thursday to Friday "

quieter

" than the previous ones and indicated that its forces "

continued to inflict serious losses on the enemy

".

Chouchane Stepanian, spokesman for Defense in Armenia, assured that the Azerbaijani army "

failed to break through the Armenian defenses

".

The Azerbaijani ministry said the opposite, claiming to have taken positions, citing "

the heights of Madaguiz

" in the north, and to have forced the Armenians to retreat in "

the Jebraïl-Fizouli direction

" in the south.

Read also: Karabakh: Moscow offers to host Armenia-Azerbaijan talks

According to the very partial reports communicated since Sunday, 190 people died: 158 separatist soldiers, 13 Armenian civilians, and 19 Azerbaijani civilians.

Baku has yet to report any military losses.

Armenia claims that 1,280 Azerbaijani soldiers died, while Baku claims to have killed at least 1,900 opposing soldiers.

On Thursday, the small town of Martouni, located about 25 kilometers from the front in separatist territory, suffered its most severe rocket fire since the resumption of hostilities.

Four civilians were killed, according to the separatists, and 11 people injured, including at least two French journalists from the daily Le Monde and two other Armenians.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-10-02

You may like

News/Politics 2024-01-29T14:00:24.149Z
News/Politics 2024-02-24T11:12:22.612Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.