Baku claimed to have taken control this Wednesday August 3 of several positions and destroyed Armenian targets in Nagorno-Karabakh, during an escalation which left three dead and revived the risk of war in this mountainous enclave.
” Control has been established on several significant heights including hills, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that its forces were fortifying those positions.
Earlier this Wednesday, August 3, both sides reported the death of at least two Armenian fighters and an Azerbaijani soldier in clashes around Karabakh, reviving the specter of a new war after that of 2020 in this disputed enclave between the Azerbaijan and Armenia. These incidents also risk weighing on the peace talks that have been taking place for several months between the two countries with the mediation of the European Union.
On Wednesday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced the death of a conscript after “heavy fire” targeted an Azerbaijani army position in the Lachin district, a buffer zone between the Armenian border and Nagorno-Karabakh. . Azerbaijan claimed to have carried out in retaliation an operation called “Vengeance”, during which ” several combat positions of illegal Armenian armed elements were destroyed “.
Two members of the Armenian separatist forces were killed and 14 injured in an Azerbaijani drone strike, authorities in the enclave said, denouncing a “ flagrant violation of the ceasefire “.
Armenia appeals to the international community
Armenia ” calls on the international community to take steps to stop Azerbaijan’s aggressive attitude and actions and to activate the necessary mechanisms to do so the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Russia accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire in the enclave on Wednesday, adding that its peacekeepers deployed in the region were seeking to ” stabilize ” the situation. The Russian Defense Ministry added in a statement that “ the command of the Russian peacekeeping force, together with representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia, take measures to stabilize the situation “.
For its part, the European Union called on Wednesday for the ” immediate cessation of hostilities “. ” It is essential to de-escalate, fully respect the ceasefire and return to the negotiating table to seek negotiated solutions “said the spokesman for the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell in a press release.
Tensions remain high
Sign of the escalation of tensions, the leader of the separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Haroutiounian, signed a decree on Wednesday proclaiming a partial military mobilization in this territory, according to the website of the presidency. After a first war that killed more than 30,000 people in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed again in the fall of 2020 for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region which, supported by Yerevan, had seceded from Azerbaijan. More than 6,500 people were killed in this new war lost by Armenia.
As part of a ceasefire agreement brokered by Moscow, which has deployed peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan ceded significant territory to Azerbaijan. This ceasefire agreement was experienced as a humiliation in Armenia, where several opposition parties have been demanding since the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, whom they accuse of having made too many concessions to Baku.
Despite a timid diplomatic relaxation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, tensions remain high between the two former Soviet republics. Both countries regularly report outbreaks of violence and casualties among soldiers. Under the mediation of the European Union, the two countries are conducting negotiations to reach a peace treaty.
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(With AFP)