Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense announced that it launched an “anti-terrorist operation” against pro-Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia then asserted that the situation on the border between the two countries is stable.
Azerbaijan since December de facto blocks the only route to the enclave from Armenia, known as the Lachin Corridor, but the two sides agreed on Monday to allow humanitarian aid to flow through the corridor again.
Today, however, the Ministry of Defense there accused the Armenian forces “systematic shelling” of military positions and the message that it answered with “anti-terrorist activities to disarm and ensure the withdrawal of the formations of the Armenian armed forces from our territory”. At the same time, they asserted that their targets are not civilians or civilian objects and that civilians can leave the area through the humanitarian corridor. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry emphasized that the only way to peace in the region is the complete withdrawal of Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the dissolution of the separatist regime in the region.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense responded by saying that no one was being fired upon and that the situation on the border was calm. Moscow, however, announced that it was in contact with Baku and called on the parties to stop the bloodshed. They added that Russian peacekeepers were still in the province.
Frozen Conflict
The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region within the borders of Azerbaijan, has been tense for several months. Eleven Azerbaijani policemen and civilians were recently killed in a mine explosion, and air raid sirens sounded repeatedly in the province’s largest city.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in dispute over the territory for decades, and have fought two wars over control of the territory. Six weeks of fighting in 2020 claimed around 6,500 lives, after which the warring parties reached a peace deal sponsored by Moscow.
Russia then sent its peacekeepers to the area, whose work Armenian authorities have repeatedly criticized as failing to protect ethnic Armenians and called for the intervention of multinational peacekeepers. Since then, with the help of Moscow, Brussels and Washington, the countries have been looking for a permanent solution to the conflict.
Source: Rtvslo
