More than 30 people killed in clashes over separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus
At least 30 soldiers and a boy were reported killed as heavy fighting erupted between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The fighting was one of the worst outbreaks since the end of a full-scale war over the region in 1994.
Since 1994, mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh – officially part of Azerbaijan – has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the Armenian military. Armenian forces also occupy several areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh proper. The sides are separated by a demilitarised buffer zone, but small clashes have broken out frequently.
Each side blamed the other for Saturday’s escalation. In a statement, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that 12 of its soldiers “became shahids” – Muslim martyrs – and that one of its helicopters had been shot down. The statement also claimed that more than 100 Armenian soldiers had been killed or wounded and that six tanks and 15 artillery positions had been destroyed.
The Armenian president, Serzh Sargsyan, told his national security council that 18 Armenian soldiers had been killed and 35 wounded. Armenia had earlier claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on Azerbaijani forces, without giving figures. A statement from the Nagorno-Karabakh defence ministry claimed more than 200 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed, but there was no corroboration for that figure.
“This is the most wide-scale military action that Azerbaijan has tried to carry out since the establishment of the 1994 ceasefire regime,” Sargsyan said.
David Babayan, a spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist president, said a boy of about 12 had been killed and two other children wounded in a Grad missile barrage by Azerbaijani forces. He also characterised the fighting as the worst since 1994.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, urged all sides to cease firing and “show restraint”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. Russia’s foreign and defence ministers had contacted their Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts in the hope of stabilising the situation, the ministries said.
“The situation along the entire length of the line of opposition between Karabakhi and Azerbaijani armed forces continues to be extremely difficult,” Armenian defence ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan told Associated Press.
Years of negotiations mediated by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have brought little progress in resolving the territorial dispute.
The negotiation efforts are led by a troika of envoys from the US, Russia and France. On Saturday, the envoys jointly issued a statement calling on both sides “to stop shooting and take all necessary means to stabilise the situation on the ground”.
Armenian forces also occupy several areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh. The sides are separated by a demilitarised buffer zone, but both claim frequent violations by the other.
The Armenian defence ministry said Azerbaijan had used aircraft, tanks and artillery to try to make inroads into Nagorno-Karabakh and that “Azerbaijani authorities bear all responsibility for the unprecedentedly supercharged situation”.
The Azerbaijani defence ministry said the fighting began when Armenian forces fired mortars and large-calibre artillery shells across the frontline. Ministry spokesman Vagif Dargyakhly told Associated Press that more than 120 shots had been fired, some of which hit civilian residential areas.