About 100 soldiers have been killed in fighting on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Attacks on both sides on Tuesday made people worry that the longtime enemies might start fighting more.
Armenia said at least 49 of its soldiers were killed, while Azerbaijan said 50 of its soldiers were killed.
According to Armenia’s Defense Ministry, the fighting started a few minutes after midnight when Azerbaijani forces fired artillery and sent drones to attack many parts of Armenian territory.
Even though Russia tried to get a quick cease-fire, the ministry said that fighting continued during the day.
It said that the shelling got less bad, but Azerbaijani troops were still trying to move into Armenian territory.
It also said that Azerbaijani shelling had hurt civilian infrastructure and left an unknown number of people injured.
Armenia did a lot to make things worse between Monday night and Tuesday morning, according to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry.
It said that Azerbaijani military positions were attacked by mines and gunfire from Armenian troops.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which is in Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia and is part of Azerbaijan, has been a source of conflict between the two countries for decades. A separatist war there ended in 1994, and since then, ethnic Armenian forces have been in charge.
Azerbaijan took back large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 during a six-week war that killed over 6,600 people and ended with a peace deal brokered by Russia. As part of the deal, Moscow sent about 2,000 troops to the area to keep the peace. It has also tried to keep good relations with both former Soviet nations.
The Russian Foreign Ministry asked both sides to stop making things worse and calm down. Moscow is trying to find a good balance by keeping strong economic and security ties with Armenia, where there is a Russian military base, while also getting closer to oil-rich Azerbaijan.
As fighting broke out in the middle of the night on Tuesday, Pashinyan called Russian President Vladimir Putin right away. He later spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Charles Michel, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, and U.S. President Donald Trump. Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State, to talk about the fighting.
Blinken also spoke with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Jeyhun Bayramov, the Azerbaijani foreign minister, talked on the phone.
The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in parliament early on Tuesday that Azerbaijan’s claim that it was responding to Armenian provocations was not true. He said that his recent talks with Aliyev in Brussels, which were set up by the European Union, showed what he called Azerbaijan’s unbending position.
Aliyev sent condolences on Facebook to the families and loved ones of our servicemen who died on September 13 while trying to stop large-scale provocations by the Armenian military in the direction of the Azerbaijani regions of Kalbajar, Lachin, Dashkasan, and Zangilan.
Turkey, which is a friend of Azerbaijan, also said that Armenia was to blame for the violence. Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, told Yerevan to stop making trouble, and Hulusi Akar, the country’s defence minister, said that Armenia’s actions and aggressive attitude were wrong.
The governor of Gegharkunik province, which was one of the areas shelled by Azerbaijan, said that there was a 40-minute break in the fighting, which may have been because Moscow was trying to negotiate a cease-fire. The fighting then started up again.
The governor, Karen Sarkisyan, said that the shelling killed four Armenian troops in his area and hurt another 43.
The Armenian government said it would officially ask Russia for help under a treaty of friendship between the two countries. It also said it would ask the United Nations and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a security alliance of ex-Soviet countries that includes Armenia and is led by Moscow.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the top security officials got together to talk about the fighting. Armenia’s representative there made it clear that Yerevan wants its allies to work together to protect Armenia’s security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, didn’t say anything about Armenia’s request, but he did say in a conference call with reporters that Putin was doing everything he could to help calm things down.
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