In the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan has begun a military operation to conquer the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region. The Ministry of Defense in Baku writes in a statement about an “anti-terrorist operation of a local character to restore constitutional order” in the region.
The military operation serves to enforce the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the area, which was stipulated in the ceasefire after the last Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that only military targets were fired. According to information from Baku, Armenian artillery previously attacked its own positions and injured several soldiers.
The former head of government of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ruben Vardanyan, reported massive artillery fire on the area on his Telegram channel.
According to local sources, several civilians were killed and injured as a result of the military operation. “According to the information so far, the Azerbaijani attacks have caused at least two deaths, including one child, and eleven injuries, including eight children,” wrote the internationally unrecognized republic’s human rights commissioner, Gegam Stepanyan, on X.
The current leadership of the Republic of Artsakh rejects the allegations from Asherbaijan. The defense forces adhered to the ceasefire, the local defense ministry wrote in a press release. The allegation that the ceasefire was broken and two Azerbaijani soldiers were injured was “false and does not correspond to the facts,” the statement said.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry called on the UN Security Council and Russia to act. “Clear and unequivocal steps to end Azerbaijani aggression” are needed, according to a statement carried by Armenian media. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.
Russia called for an end to the fighting. “We are deeply concerned about the sharp escalation of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The conflict must be resolved through diplomatic channels. At the same time, she rejected allegations made in Armenia that Russia was privy to Azerbaijan’s attack plans. The Russian troops stationed there only found out about it minutes before the military operation began, she said. The European Union also called for an end to hostilities.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is decades old
Christian Orthodox Armenia and Muslim-dominated Azerbaijan have long been enemies. The biggest point of contention between Yerevan and Baku is the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which belongs to Azerbaijan but is predominantly inhabited by Armenians. After a war in the early 1990s between the two former Soviet republics, Armenia initially had the upper hand. In a second war in 2020, Azerbaijan, which was heavily armed with money from the oil and gas business, won and recaptured its own territory. In shorter military actions thereafter, Baku also occupied around 150 square kilometers of Armenian territory.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry demanded last week that Azerbaijan vacate these areas. Baku replied that Armenia still occupied eight Azerbaijani villages. Baku has been blocking the connection of around 120,000 Karabakh Armenians to Armenia for months. There is a lack of food and medicine in the area.
Azerbaijan is supported by Turkey in the conflict, while Russia, Armenia’s traditional protecting power, is losing influence. “As a result of the events in Ukraine, Russia’s opportunities have changed,” said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a recent interview with the US media Politico. His country wants to avoid being dependent on external protectors in the future.