Azerbaijan claimed to have taken control of several positions on Wednesday and destroyed Armenian targets in Nagorno-Karabakh, during an escalation that left three dead and revived the risk of war in this mountainous enclave.
“Control has been established at several important heights,” including hills, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that its forces were fortifying those positions.
Earlier on Wednesday, both sides reported the deaths of at least two Armenian separatists and one Azerbaijani soldier in violence around Karabakh, raising the specter of a new war after the one in 2020.
Moscow takes “measures to stabilize the situation”
These incidents are also likely to influence the peace talks that have been going on for several months between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two rival former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, mediated by the European Union.
Moscow, which regards the Caucasus region as its backyard, is taking “measures to stabilize the situation”, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, accusing Azerbaijani forces of violating the truce in the Saribaba area, near the border with Armenia.
The European Union, for its part, called for the “immediate cessation of hostilities.” “It is essential to de-escalate, respect the ceasefire as much as possible and return to the negotiating table to seek negotiated solutions,” said Peter Stano, spokesman for the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, in a statement.
An operation called “Revenge”
On Wednesday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced the death of a recruit after “heavy fire” directed at an Azerbaijani army position in Lachin district, a buffer zone between the Armenian border and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan claimed to have carried out an operation called “Revenge” in retaliation, during which “several fighting positions of illegal Armenian armed elements were destroyed”. Two members of the Armenian separatist forces were killed and 14 wounded, authorities in the enclave said, denouncing a “flagrant violation of the ceasefire.”
Faced with this situation, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the international community to take measures to stop “the aggressive attitude and actions of Azerbaijan”.
A sign of the escalation of tensions, the leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh separatists, Arayik Haroutiounian, signed a decree on Wednesday proclaiming a partial military mobilization in this territory, according to the presidency website.
Source: BFM TV
