(Yerevan) Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday accused each other of carrying out fresh attacks, amid the worst violence between the two countries since the 2020 war over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
Posted at 7:48 a.m.
At least 100 Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers died in the clashes on Tuesday, with Russia announcing a ceasefire, but both sides have already accused each other of violating it.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Baku “has resumed its attacks with artillery, mortars and large-caliber weapons in the directions of Jermuk, Verin Chorja”.
For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday morning that Armenian forces had violated the ceasefire and “during the night shelled our positions in the Kelbajar and Lachin areas with mortars and artillery. »
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two rival ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus, have clashed in two wars over the past three decades for control of the Nagorny Karabakh region, the last of which was in 2020.
The new fighting illustrates how explosive the situation remains, in Nagorny Karabakh, but also on the official border between the two countries.
Armenia called on the international community to react, while the European Union, the United States, France, Russia, Iran and Turkey all expressed serious concern and called for an end to the violence.
Historically complicated, relations between Yerevan and Baku continue to be poisoned by their dispute over Nagorny Karabakh, an enclave mainly populated by Armenians who seceded from Azerbaijan with the support of Armenia.
After a first war that killed more than 30,000 people in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed again in the fall of 2020 for control of this mountainous region.
More than 6500 people were killed in this new war, lost by Armenia.