Armenia and Azerbaijani forces yesterday kept fighting over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh after hostilities broke out the day before, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the deadly attacks that reportedly also wounded scores of people.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense claimed that Armenian forces started shelling the town of Tartar yesterday morning, while Armenian officials said the fighting continued throughout the night and Baku resumed “offensive actions” in the morning.
The ministry told the Interfax news agency that more than 550 Armenian troops have been “destroyed [including those wounded],” a claim that Armenian officials denied.
Photo: AFP / Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nagorno-Karabakh officials said that 31 servicemen have been killed so far.
On Sunday, the territory’s defense ministry also reported two civilian deaths — a woman and her grandson.
About 200 people have been wounded in the fighting, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said, while Azerbaijani authorities said 26 civilians have been wounded on their side.
The heavy fighting broke out on Sunday morning in the region that lies within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994 at the end of a separatist war.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the fighting, the heaviest since clashes in July killed 16 people from both sides.
Mostly mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh — a region of about 4,400km2 — lies 50km from the Armenian border. Local soldiers backed by Armenia also occupy some Azerbaijani territory outside the region.
The EU urged both sides to halt the fighting and return to the negotiating table, following similar calls by Iran, Russia, France and the US.
“We hope and we urge everyone to everything they can in order to prevent an all-out war from breaking out, because this is the last thing the region needs,” European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told reporters in Brussels.
“There is no military solution to this conflict,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh “is a cause for concern for Moscow and other countries.”
“We believe that the hostilities should be immediately ended,” Peskov told reporters, adding that the process of resolving the conflict between the two countries should shift into “a politico-diplomatic” dimension.
The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Turkey, who sides with Azerbaijan in the conflict, of “supporting this aggression.”
“Turkish military experts are fighting side by side with Azerbaijan, who are using Turkish weapons, including UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles] and warplanes,” it said.
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