Yerevan and Baku exchanged accusations of bombing and provocations. Experts believe Azerbaijan is testing the ground, seeing Russia’s weakness.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense announced an intensive bombing of Armenian settlements on the border of Azerbaijan, as a result of which nearly 50 soldiers were killed. Azerbaijani authorities, in turn, accused Yerevan of “large-scale sabotage” and announced losses on both sides. The Armenian government has turned to Russia, CSTO member countries, the United States, France and the UN Security Council because of the fighting. Korrespondent.net tell the details.
Azerbaijan has taken new positions
On the night of September 13, the Armenian Ministry of Defense reported that Azerbaijani Armed Forces have begun intensively bombing in the direction of a number of Armenian border settlements. Azerbaijani authorities, in turn, accused Yerevan of “large-scale sabotage” on the border in the Dashkesan, Kalbajar and Lachin directions.
“On September 13, at 00:05, units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened intense fire in the direction of the settlements of Goris, Sotk and Jermuk using artillery and large-caliber firearms. The positions of the Armenian armed forces were bombed.” , the Armenian military department said.
Subsequently, the Armenian Ministry of Defense added that “an intense firefight continues, which began following a large-scale provocation by Azerbaijan”. “The Armenian armed forces are responding in a proportionate way,” the agency said in a statement.
The ministry says Azerbaijan is using artillery, mortars, unmanned aircraft and large-caliber light weapons, targeting military and civilian infrastructure in the direction of the settlements of Vardenis, Sotk, Artanish, Ishkhanasar, Goris and Kapan.
In response, Azerbaijan stressed that at night “sabotage groups of the Armenian armed forces undermined the areas and supply routes between the positions of the Azerbaijani army units”.
“As a result of the urgent measures taken by our units to immediately prevent these acts, a battle took place,” the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry noted, adding that there have been losses among personnel.
The Azerbaijani army is taking “necessary measures” to “silence the fire points of the Armenian armed forces and prevent the expansion of the scope of the military conflict,” Baku stressed. They called the allegations that Azerbaijan invaded Armenia “absurd”.
According to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense, the Armenian side suffered losses in military personnel and equipment. After some time, Yerevan confirmed the losses: 49 soldiers.
As a result of the clashes, the Azerbaijani army “provided control over a number of important strategic positions and hills in the border area, which were not demarcated,” Trend reported. In addition, the Azerbaijani army took “under visual and fire control a series of strategic communications that passed through the territory of Armenia”.
On the evening of September 13, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced a decrease in the intensity of hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, but maintaining tension in many areas.
Armenia brought half the world to his ears
Against the backdrop of border fighting, Armenia turned to Russia, member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the United Nations Security Council for help. France, which has chaired the UN Security Council since September 1, has promised to consider the issue of the escalation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Elysée reported.
In addition, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan phoned Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, then French President Emmanuel Macron and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Pashinyan also called the president of Iran.
The agreement between the members of the CSTO, which also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, suggests that an attack on one union member means an attack on all. Yerevan also asked Moscow to activate the Treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance between the two countries.
The Kremlin reported that it will hold an online CSTO summit tonight and on September 16 Putin will meet with the Azerbaijani leader on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Samarkand.
The United States intervened. State Department chief adviser for the Caucasus, Philip Reeker, has arrived in Azerbaijan. He plans to discuss the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, local media write.
Washington announced three days ago that the US and the EU would act as mediators between Baku and Yerevan. The State Department intends to “ensure a secure, stable, democratic, prosperous and peaceful future in the South Caucasus region,” official statements say.
Turkey commented on the aggravation of the border, supporting Azerbaijan. “Baku is not alone, Ankara is close,” said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. And the office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that peace between the parties to the conflict can be achieved “only on the basis of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan”.
What does Azerbaijan’s bombing of Armenia mean?
BBC News correspondent Grigor Atanesyan calls the night escalation unprecedented. According to the Armenian authorities and journalists, not only the border towns but also the tourist resorts of Jermuk and Martuni on Lake Sevan were hit by artillery.
“It is important that it is not Karabakh, the conflict zone where the Russian peacekeepers are stationed. Fighting is ongoing on the territory of the Republic of Armenia, both sides admit. Baku says it has launched an operation. military in response to provocations – according to their version, Armenian troops bombed all last week, “notes the reporter.
His sources in Armenia assure that the Armenian military simply is unable to carry out provocations after a heavy defeat in the 2020 war, which showed Azerbaijan’s military superiority.
Nikolai Silaev, a senior researcher at the MGIMO Center for Caucasus Problems and Regional Security, says Azerbaijan is closely following the war in Ukraine and any Russian failure on the battlefield is accompanied by increased pressure. on Armenia.
“It’s more like an investigation, but what will happen if … At the same time, Azerbaijan starts from the fact that it considers strong pressure as the most reliable tool in a dialogue with Armenia and shows what will happen if it is used “he told Kommersant.
The expert does not think that Yerevan will make concessions. “But for now, Azerbaijan starts with the expectation that this will work. In its most general form, it interprets the tripartite declaration of November 2020 as follows: the structures of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic must be liquidated,” he said.
Two years of a new phase of the conflict in Karabakh
The territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has been ongoing since the late 1980s. Populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, with the support of Armenia, announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijani SSR and in September 1991 announced the creation of the “republic” of Nagorno-Karabakh, but no country recognized it.
In the war that broke out after that of 1992-1994, up to 25-30 thousand people died on both sides. Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions of Azerbaijan came de facto under the control of Armenia. As a result, millions of people, mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis, became refugees and forced migrants.
The negotiation process to find a peaceful solution to the conflict began in 1992 and has continued since then under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France and the United States.
The conflict between Yerevan and Baku over Nagorno-Karabakh intensified in the summer of 2020. Following the war, which lasted until 9 November, 6.5,000 people died and Azerbaijan returned the regions around Nagorno-Karabakh under his control and took the ancient and symbolically significant city of Shusha.
Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
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The day after Shusha’s capture, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin signed a peace agreement to end the war in the region.
Under the terms of the agreement, the territories in which the troops were located at the time of signing the document were assigned to Armenia and Azerbaijan. A “peacekeeping” mission from Russia is deployed along the line of contact, but tensions in the region persist, as no political dialogue between Baku and Yerevan was established after the war ended.
Somewhere between the parties there are clashes. The first took place in December 2020, i.e. one month after the signing of the agreement. As it turned out, the parties to the conflict different interpretations of the founding document on a truce.
Tension on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan also increased significantly last summer. Therefore there was a full fight with the use of mortars and grenade launchers, resulting in the death of military personnel. The parties quickly agreed on a truce, but accused each other of provocation the next day.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the conflict escalated in March 2022. Then in the “republic” of Nagorno-Karabakh declared martial law. This was stated by NSDC secretary Alexei Danilov, commenting on the events in Karabakh a second front would help Ukraine.
The last time happened in August. Then the fighting broke out in the region of the Lachin corridor, the road that connects Armenia and the self-proclaimed “republic” of Nagorno-Karabakh. The reason was Baku’s request to the Armenians of Karabakh to abandon this route and start using the new one, which Azerbaijan had established specifically for communication with Armenia.
After the Armenians made it clear they would not, the start of Operation Retribution was announced in Baku and a partial mobilization was announced in Karabakh. At the same time, Armenia affirmed this ongoing “raises questions” about the work of the Russian army in the area.
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