The Azerbaijani army claimed to have taken more than 60 Armenian positions in Tuesday’s offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region disputed with Armenia for decades, as international calls for an end to armed clashes multiply.
“More than 60 combat positions of Armenian forces [separatistas] are now under the control of our armed forces,” Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Anar Eyvazov said at a press conference.
On this issue, the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, asked Baku to “immediately cease” the offensive in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“These actions are worsening an already difficult humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and undermining the prospects for peace,” said the US Secretary of State in a statement, stressing that the use of force is “unacceptable”, for which he called for “the cease-fire”.
Meanwhile, in a statement from the Elysée Palace, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the Azerbaijani military operation and called for the “immediate cessation of the offensive” and the rapid resumption of talks to find a solution to the humanitarian situation in the area and an agreement. about peace.
In a conversation with the Armenian Prime Minister, the statement said, Macron reiterated to Nikol Pachinian France’s support for the territorial integrity of Armenia and stated that Paris has already requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council due to the risk that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict represents for regional stability.
Baku today announced a military operation in the enclave due to the death of four police officers and two Azeri civilians in a mine explosion, which it attributed to Armenian separatists.
Russia maintains a peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh, as part of a ceasefire brokered by Moscow, Armenia’s traditional ally, to end the previous conflict in the region in 2020.
In this sense, Moscow has already asked for restraint and said that it was informed of the start of the operation “a few minutes” before, after Baku announced that it had notified Russian forces.
After launching the military operation, Azerbaijan demanded Armenia’s “unconditional and total” withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and the dissolution of the “so-called separatist regime” to achieve peace in the Azerbaijani region.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region of Azerbaijan with an Armenian majority, declared independence from Baku after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The declaration of independence triggered an armed conflict in which separatists supported by Armenia emerged victorious.
Thirty years later, in the fall of 2020, the Azerbaijani armed forces reconquered two-thirds of the territory, located in the South Caucasus.
Source: TSF
