Clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces on Monday killed at least 13 people in a third day of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, as Turkey fueled tensions following the worst violence in decades in the disputed territory.
Russia and the West have scrambled to call for an end to the fighting, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a firm ally of Azerbaijan, insisted that the Armenian-controlled region would “one day” return to Baku’s control.
On the ground, the death toll since fighting erupted on Friday night last week rose to 46 after the Armenian Ministry of Defense said five Armenian “volunteer” fighters were killed when a bus in which they were traveling was attacked.
Photo: PHOTOLURE via AP
Earlier, the Armenia-backed separatist authorities in Karabakh — which claims independence, but is supported by Yerevan — said three civilians and two more soldiers were killed in fierce shelling.
Baku said three of its troops were killed overnight when Armenian forces shelled its positions using mortars and grenade launchers.
Azerbaijan has claimed to have captured several strategic positions inside Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, in what would be the first change in the front line since an inconclusive ceasefire ended a war over the region in 1994.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that a “ceasefire would only be possible if the militaries of both sides return to the positions” they held prior to the outbreak of hostilities.
His comment came a day after Azerbaijan announced a unilateral truce that failed to stop the fighting. Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Zakir Gasanov instead on Monday ordered the army to be ready to strike Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert, “in case of continued Armenian bombardment of civilian targets in Azerbaijan.”
A photojournalist in Stepanakert said the situation remained calm on Monday in the rebel capital with a population of about 50,000 people.
Hundreds of volunteers were arriving in the city from Armenia to fight alongside separatist forces, while local authorities were busy organizing shelters for the refugees from frontline villages.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has sold weaponry to both sides but has far closer economic and military ties to Armenia, has called for a ceasefire, a move echoed by Washington.
However, Erdogan — another regional power broker who has been at loggerheads with Putin since Ankara downed a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November last year — fanned the flames.
“We are today standing side-by-side with our brothers in Azerbaijan, but this persecution will not continue forever,” Erdogan said in televised comments. “Karabakh will one day return to its original owner. It will be Azerbaijan’s.”
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed Karabakh in a telephone conversation on Monday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
In an apparent reference to Erdogan’s statement, it said: “Lavrov and Kerry condemned attempts by certain external players to instigate confrontation around Karabakh.”
US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner did not address Erdogan’s remarks, but said both sides should resume the internationally mediated search for a settlement. He deplored the “very high number of casualties, including civilians.”
“And we urge both sides to stop using force immediately and to avoid any kind of further escalation,” Toner added.
Mediators from Russia, the US and France — which have long spearheaded attempts to find a solution to the “frozen” conflict — were yesterday to meet in Vienna.
Separatists backed by Yerevan seized control of mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority ethnic Armenian region, in an early 1990s war that claimed about 30,000 lives. The foes have never signed a peace deal, despite the 1994 ceasefire.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan, whose military spending exceeds Armenia’s entire state budget, has repeatedly threatened to take back the breakaway region by force. Sporadic clashes happen regularly along the front, but the latest outbreak represents a serious escalation and analysts warned it risked spiraling even further.
“The Karabakh conflict has serious geopolitical implications,” Tbilisi State University professor of international relations Sergi Kapanadze told reporters.
The flare-up “threatens the stability of the strategic Caucasus region, which is a transit route of Caspian oil and gas to European markets that bypasses Russia, reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian energy supplies,” he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not