More than seven thousand civilians from 16 towns were evacuated this Tuesday from Nagorno-Karabakh, after the launch of a large-scale military operation by Azerbaijan, announced the Armenian separatist authorities in this enclave.
“More than seven thousand people were evacuated from 16 localities in the regions of Askeran, Martakert, Martouni and Shushi in Artsakh”, the latter is the name given by the Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh, Gegham Stepanian stated on X (former Twitter). defender of human rights in the separatist region.
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, while international calls for an end to armed clashes multiply.
Nagorno-Karabakh separatists declared that the fighting left at least 27 dead, including two civilians, and more than 200 injured in this region, where some 7,000 residents of 16 towns were evacuated.
Azerbaijan said, in turn, that two civilians were killed in areas under its control.
At the beginning of the afternoon, the Presidency of Azerbaijan asked the troops of this separatist territory of Azerbaijan, inhabited mainly by Armenians, to lay down their arms, a condition imposed for the start of negotiations.
“The illegal Armenian armed forces must raise the white flag, hand over all weapons and the illegal regime must be dissolved. Otherwise, anti-terrorist operations will continue to the end,” stated the Azerbaijani Presidency, replicating Azerbaijani diplomacy demanding a surrender “total”. and unconditional”.
The Azerbaijani Presidency proposed, in the event of capitulation, to hold talks “with representatives of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh in Yevlakh”, an Azerbaijani city located 295 kilometers west of Baku.
Before that, authorities in this disputed region called for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations.
Separatists claim that several cities in Nagorno-Karabakh, including its capital Stepanakert, are the subject of “intensive shooting”, which also targets civilian infrastructure.
The clashes take place “along the entire line of contact” in this territory and the Azeris use “artillery”, rockets, attack drones and aircraft, they stated.
As for Armenia, which denounced a “large-scale aggression” for the purposes of “ethnic cleansing”, it guaranteed that it had no troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, suggesting that the separatists were alone fighting Azerbaijani soldiers.
Armenians believe it is up to Russia, which guarantees the ceasefire dating back to 2020 with peacekeepers on the ground, to act to “stop Azerbaijan’s aggression.”
The 2020 conflict resulted in a military defeat for Armenia, which had to cede ground to Azerbaijan in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.
These two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus signed a ceasefire, negotiated by Russia, without ever reaching a peace agreement.
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
