New conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh

An Armenian soldier fires in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. 2020 war time pictures

Azerbaijan and Armenia are involved in a new conflict. The clash between the troops of both countries continued overnight on Monday (September 12). The two countries have a decades-old enmity over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the two countries have recently clashed over the issue.

Meanwhile, several Russian news agencies reported the clash on Tuesday (September 13) morning. Reuters reported this information in a report on Tuesday.

According to the report, Azerbaijan re-established full control over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020 after a six-week conflict. However, the country admitted to casualties among its forces in the clashes overnight on Monday. Armenia, however, did not report any casualties, but said clashes with Azerbaijan continued overnight.

The Russian news agency Interfax reported that the Armenian government said it would call for a cooperation agreement with Russia and appeal to the UN Security Council as well as the Russian-led security bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Meanwhile, both sides have blamed each other for starting a new war. “A number of positions, shelters and reinforcement points of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces … were subjected to intense shelling by the Armenian army with various weapons, including mortars,” a statement from Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense said. As a result, there has been loss of personnel and damage to military infrastructure.’

The Azerbaijani statement also said that Armenian forces were engaged in intelligence activities in the border area. They (Armenia) were transporting weapons to the area and started mining operations on Monday night.

It said Azerbaijan (Armenia) responded by “targeting military targets”. Armenia’s Defense Ministry said: “Mass shelling is ongoing – triggered by ‘large-scale provocation by Azerbaijan’.” The armed forces of Armenia are responding.

In the late 1980s, conflict broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Both countries were under Soviet rule at the time. At one point Armenian forces occupied parts of the region near Nagorno-Karabakh, which had long been internationally recognized as Azerbaijan’s territory.

Later in 2020, Azerbaijan regained those territories by carrying out massive military operations. The six-week war then ended with Russian mediation. Then thousands of residents who fled the war returned there.

Since then, the leaders of the two countries have met several times over the past two years to reach an agreement aimed at establishing lasting peace in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Note that Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a dispute over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region for decades. Nagorno-Karabakh is located within the territory of Azerbaijan, but since a war in 1994, ethnic Armenian forces supported by Armenia have controlled the region.

Russia has military bases in Armenia. The war that started between the two countries over this territory in November 2020 ended with the mediation of Russia. After that, about 2,000 peacekeepers were deployed in the area. Azerbaijan was able to regain control of large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas in a Russian-brokered ceasefire. which was previously under the control of the Armenian-backed residents. More than 6,500 people lost their lives in that conflict in 2020.