Status: 19/09/2023, 17:27 p.m.
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Video still from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense: Smoke rises over an area where, according to Azerbaijani data, positions of the Armenian Armed Forces are located. © ---/Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan/AP/dpa
With artillery, missiles and drones, Azerbaijan is attacking the Armenian-inhabited region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku speaks of an "anti-terrorist operation" against Armenia's military. A new war is looming.
Baku/Yerevan - Azerbaijan has launched a new military operation in the South Caucasus to conquer the conflict region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Ministry of Defense of the authoritarian-led ex-Soviet republic speaks of an "anti-terrorist operation of a local character to restore constitutional order" in the region.
According to the statement from Baku, the military operation serves to enforce the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the area, which was enshrined in the ceasefire after the last Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. It will only be fired at military targets, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed. According to information from Baku, Armenian artillery attacked their own positions and injured several soldiers.
Reports of dead and injured civilians
Authorities on the ground, on the other hand, reported deaths and injuries among the civilian population. "According to the information so far, the Azerbaijani attacks have caused at least two deaths, including one child, and eleven injured, including eight children," the human rights commissioner of the internationally unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh), Gegam Stepanyan, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Seven children were taken to a hospital.
Azerbaijani tanks near Kalbajar (archive image). © Emrah Gurel/AP/dpa
Residents of the regional capital Stepanakert circulated footage showing the shelling of residential buildings. There are no military objects in the neighborhoods, they complain. The former head of the Nagorno-Karabakh government, Ruben Vardanyan, reported on his Telegram channel of massive artillery fire on the entire territory. "The leadership of Armenia must recognize Artsakh and join the protection of our citizens," he demanded as a consequence.
At the same time, the current leadership of the conflict region around the capital Stepanakert rejected the accusations from Baku. The defense forces adhered to the ceasefire, the Artsakh Ministry of Defense said. The accusation of breaking the ceasefire and injuring two Azerbaijani soldiers was "a lie and does not correspond to the facts," it said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are arch-enemies
Christian Orthodox Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan have long been enemies. The biggest point of contention between Yerevan and Baku is the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is located on Azerbaijani territory but is mostly inhabited by Armenians. After a war in the early 1990s, Armenia initially had the upper hand. In a second war in 2020, Azerbaijan, which had been heavily armed with money from the oil and gas business, won and recaptured territory.
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In shorter military actions thereafter, Baku also occupied about 150 square kilometers of Armenian territory. Armenia has now called on the UN Security Council and Russia to take action. "Clear and unambiguous steps to end Azerbaijani aggression" are needed, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Yerevan distributed by Armenian media.
Armenia's Prime Minister calls on the West for help
Meanwhile, at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan repeated accusations from Stepanakert that Azerbaijan was seeking to expel Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. "Azerbaijan has effectively launched a ground operation to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenians," he said. For Yerevan, it is important to ensure the rights and safety of the local population.
An Armenian soldier near Charektar in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. © Sergei Grits/AP/dpa
Nevertheless, the Armenian military is not directly involved in combat operations at the moment, he said. "Armenia does not have an army in Nagorno-Karabakh, and we are not going to make any ill-conceived actions at the moment," he said.
In phone calls with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emanuel Macron, Pashinyan tried to persuade the West to put political pressure on Baku to stop the war. Both Blinken and Macron condemned Azerbaijan's attack. In Yerevan, however, protests against their own government began in the evening. The demonstrators accuse Pashinyan of inaction.
Food and medicines are lacking
The head of government has been politically battered since losing the war in 2020. The blockade of the Lachin corridor, which Baku has been operating for months as the only connection between the approximately 120,000 Karabakh Armenians and Armenia, has also further shaken its image. There is a shortage of food and medicine in the area.
However, Armenia is now considered militarily inferior. Azerbaijan is supported in the conflict by Turkey, while Russia, as the traditional protector of Armenia, is losing influence - also because Moscow has invested its resources in the war of aggression against Ukraine. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also expressed only the traditional "deep concern" and called on both sides to de-escalate. Dpa