UN Security Council wants to end fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh immediately

The UN Security Council is concerned about the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls on the countries to immediately stop fighting.

The call follows yesterday’s United Nations Secretary-General Guterres, who urged both countries to stop using force immediately.

The UN Security Council was convened by five European members (France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium and Estonia) as the conflict threatens to escalate further.

More than a hundred people are said to have died on the Armenian side, including dozens of civilians. There is no clarity about Azerbaijani victims.

Allegations back and forth

Furthermore, according to Armenia, a military plane would have been downed by a fighter plane from Turkey, Azerbaijan’s ally. According to both Turkey and Azerbaijan, the Armenian accusation was not correct.

Conversely, Azerbaijan yesterday accused Armenia of bombarding the Dashkasan region with air strikes. That region is located in the border area of ​​both countries, far from Nagorno-Karabakh.

The countries, meanwhile, seem to be anything but willing to sit down with each other, despite calls from Russia – which maintains diplomatic ties with both countries – to do so.

The countries accuse each other of thwarting any negotiations. Yesterday, diplomats from both countries got into a fight in the United Nations General Assembly over who had sparked the conflict.

War in the 1990s

Nagorno-Karabakh, in the South Caucasus, is located in Azerbaijan. However, mainly Armenians live there and they have de facto power in their hands. Armenia and Azerbaijan waged war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s.

A ceasefire was agreed in 1994, but the truce has been breached several times. That happened for the last time in 2016, when about a hundred people were killed on both sides. The area is not internationally recognized as independent.

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