In the South Caucasus, the ex-Soviet republic of 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 claims that only military targets are fired. According to information from Baku, Armenian artillery initially 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.
The current leadership of the Republic of Artsakh also 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 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 enclave, which belongs to Azerbaijan but is inhabited by Armenians. After a war in the early 1990s, 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 last week demanded 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.