Fierce fighting raged between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces on Monday.
Fierce fighting raged between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces on Monday, sparking belligerent rhetoric from the Turkish regional power despite international calls for an end to fighting between long-standing enemies.
Yerevan and Baku have been locked in a territorial dispute over the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh for decades, with deadly fighting erupting last July and 2016.
The region declared independence from Azerbaijan after a war in the early 1990s that left 30,000 dead, but it is not recognized by any country – including Armenia – and is still considered as part of Azerbaijan by the international community.
On Monday evening, Azerbaijani forces launched a “massive offensive in the southern and northeastern sectors of the Karabakh front,” Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
The Karabakh Defense Ministry said another 26 soldiers were killed on Monday evening, bringing the rebels’ total military casualties to 84.
The total death toll rose to 95, including 11 civilians: nine in Azerbaijan and two on the Armenian side.
Azerbaijan has not reported any military casualties, but Armenian separatist officials released footage showing burnt armored vehicles and the bloody and charred remains of camouflaged soldiers they said were Azerbaijani troops.
The fighting between predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and Christian Armenia could confuse regional actors, Russia and Turkey.
Russia, which has a military alliance with Armenia and sets up a permanent military base there, sells sophisticated arms worth billions of dollars in Baku and Yerevan.
Armenia has accused Turkey – which backs Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan – of interfering in the conflict.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday ordered a partial military mobilization and General But Barkhudarov vowed to “fight to the last drop of blood to completely destroy the enemy and win”.
As each side blames the other for the outbreak, world leaders have called for calm as fears of full-scale conflict mount.
The UN Security Council was scheduled to meet at 5:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. GMT) on Tuesday for emergency Karabakh talks behind closed doors, diplomats told AFP.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is monitoring the situation closely and the current priority is “to end hostilities, not to ask who is right and who is wrong”.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Armenia to end its “occupation” of Karabakh.
“The time has come to end the crisis in the region which began with the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Erdogan said.
“Now Azerbaijan must take matters into their own hands.”
– Mercenaries from Syria –
Armenia accused Turkey of sending mercenaries to support Azerbaijan.
A war observer said on Monday that Turkey had sent at least 300 proxies from northern Syria to join Azerbaijani forces.
Turkey informed fighters that it would be in charge of “guarding border regions” in Azerbaijan in return for a salary of up to $ 2,000, said Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. UK based man.
The report comes after the European Union warned regional powers not to interfere in the fighting and condemned a “serious escalation” that threatens regional stability.
Besides the EU and Russia, France, Germany, Italy and the United States have called for a ceasefire.
Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said Armenian separatist forces resumed positions taken by Azerbaijan on Sunday.
But Baku called for further progress.
Azerbaijani forces “strike enemy positions … and have taken several strategic positions around the village of Talysh,” the defense ministry said.
“The enemy is retreating,” he added, accusing separatist forces of bombing civilian targets in the town of Terter.
– ‘We are not afraid of war’ –
The escalation sparked a wave of patriotic fervor in both countries.
“We have been waiting for this day for so long. The fighting must not stop until we force Armenia to surrender our land,” Vidadi Alekperov, a 39-year-old waiter in Baku, told AFP.
“I will gladly go to the battlefield.”
In Yerevan, Vardan Harutyunyan, 67, said Armenia had anticipated the attack.
“The issue (of Karabakh) can only be resolved militarily. We are not afraid of a war,” he said.
Armenia and Karabakh declared martial law and military mobilization on Sunday, while Azerbaijan imposed military rule and curfews in major cities.
Talks to resolve the conflict – one of the worst to emerge from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – have largely stalled since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.
Analysts told AFP that international brokers need to redouble their efforts to avoid an even worse escalation.
France, Russia and the United States negotiated the peace efforts as the “Minsk Group,” but the last big push for a peace deal collapsed in 2010.
