The attack on Nagorno-Karabakh will only end when the Armenians surrender, says the president of Azerbaijan.
In Azerbaijan’s attack on Nagorno-Karabakh controlled by Armenian separatists, almost a hundred people have already died and hundreds have been injured, says the former leader of the region that declared itself independent Ruben Vardanyan.
– This is a big war. Azerbaijan has started a full-scale operation, Vardanyan estimated in an interview with the news agency Reuters.
In his comments, Vardanyan did not specify how many of the victims were soldiers and how many were civilians. Earlier, according to the separatists, two civilians had died in the attacks.
According to Vardanyan, the Azerbaijani attack that started on Tuesday continued throughout the night. He warned of a refugee crisis if the region’s 120,000 residents have to flee to Armenia.
Azerbaijan shows no signs of slowing down its attack. On the contrary: the president of the country Ilham Aliyev says the “anti-terrorist operation” will only end when the Armenians “lay down their weapons”.
According to the press release of the Presidential Office, Aliyev said this to the US Secretary of State To Antony Blinkenwhen he called and demanded Azerbaijan to ease the conflict.
– I demand President Aliyev to stop the military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh immediately, Blinken wrote on the message service X the night before Wednesday, Finnish time.
Read here what the long-simmering conflict is about.
Azerbaijan seems to be determined in its efforts to gain control of the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to a news website following the region Eurasians.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, its military operations in the region “continue successfully”. It says it has taken over 60 combat positions and destroyed the opposing separatists’ vehicles, artillery and other military equipment.
According to Azerbaijani President Aliyev, the attacks are not aimed at civilians and the infrastructure used by civilians. However, footage sent from the scene shows destroyed buildings and cars in the capital of the region, Stepanakert.
Russia also has troops in the region
Secretary General of the UN António Guterres and the Pope Francis demanding an immediate end to the fighting. The attack has also been condemned by, for example, the EU, France and Germany.
Russia, which is waging its own war of aggression in Ukraine, also “called on the parties to the conflict to stop the bloodshed”. In the past, Armenia has relied heavily on Russian support, but relations between the allies have weakened as Russia wages war in Ukraine.
Russia has 2,000 soldiers in the region to monitor compliance with the 2020 post-war peace agreement. According to Russia, its soldiers have evacuated civilians and provided medical aid.
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has instead expressed its support for its ally Azerbaijan, reports the news agency Anatolia.
Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan under international law, but its population is ethnically Armenian. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh declared itself independent, after which the region has been at war twice. No UN member state has recognized its independence.
In Armenia, the resignation of the prime minister is demanded
In Armenia, hundreds of protesters gathered on Tuesday in the country’s capital, Yerevan, to demand a prime minister Nikol Pashinyan leave because of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. Protesters clashed with police, and more than 30 people were injured, according to Armenia’s Health Ministry.
The country’s security council has warned of widespread unrest and has assured that it will take strict measures to preserve constitutional order.
In his televised statement, Pashinjan warned that demands for a revolution in Armenia have already been made from different directions. He accused Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and said that the Armenian army is not a party to the fighting.
Azerbaijan denies allegations of ethnic cleansing and says it protects the rights of the Armenian population in the region within the framework of its own constitution.
Sources: Reuters, AFP, STT