Battles in the border area
Armenia reports attacks by Azerbaijan
9/13/2022 1:26 am
Two years after the last war between the two Caucasus republics, Azerbaijan is apparently attacking its neighbor Armenia. The attacks are not aimed at the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, but at the Armenian heartland. Baku explains that it is a reaction to an attempt at sabotage.
In the shadow of the Ukraine war, heavy fighting has broken out again between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Caucasus. According to his government, the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan telephoned the President of the protecting power Russia, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday night. Pashinyan spoke of an Azerbaijani attack to which there must be an international reaction. He and Putin therefore agreed to stay in touch. The Armenian head of government also alarmed French President Emmanuel Macron, media in Yerevan reported.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijani troops attacked Armenian positions in three places with artillery and large-caliber weapons. There are dead and wounded. In Baku, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that a large-scale attempt at sabotage by Armenians had triggered the fighting. “The entire responsibility for the situation lies with the military-political leadership of Armenia,” it said.
Attacks in Armenian heartland
The former Soviet republics have been at war with each other over the Nagorno-Karabakh region for decades. However, according to Armenian information, the exclave was not attacked this time, the attacks hit positions near the cities of Goris, Sotk and Dschermuk. These are on the territory of Armenia near the border with Azerbaijan.
Disputed Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan but is inhabited by Armenians. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenian forces secured control of the area in a war from 1992 to 1994 and occupied large parts of Azerbaijan. In 2020, with military support from Turkey, Azerbaijan regained its territories and seized strategically important points in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia, the protecting power of the Christian Armenians, is monitoring the ceasefire agreed four months later. Since then, the European Union has also made many efforts to resolve the conflict. Observers suspect that Azerbaijan is now taking advantage of the recent setbacks for Russia in the war against Ukraine.
The Foreign Office warned Germans in the region to be cautious, and that the fighting could not be ruled out. Anyone in an area affected by hostilities should go to a safe place and wait there until it is safe to leave. It is Jermuk that is popular with foreign tourists, as there is a well-known mineral spa there.