Azerbaijan says it has begun “anti-terror operations” in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Defense Ministry in Baku said the operations were directed against Armenian forces. According to the statement, the military operation is intended to enforce the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the area as agreed in the ceasefire after the last Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. Turkey and Russia have been informed of the action.
According to an AFP reporter, explosions were heard in Stepanakert, the capital of the region that has been disputed between the two countries for decades. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that only military targets were fired.
Dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh
According to Azerbaijani reports, six people were previously killed in mine explosions. Azerbaijani security forces said two civilians were killed by a mine planted by Armenian “sabotage groups” on a road towards the city of Shusha in the Azerbaijani-controlled part of Nagorno-Karabakh. Four police officers were later killed in another mine explosion on the way to the explosion site.
The two ex-Soviet republics Azerbaijan and Armenia have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the Soviet Union and have already fought two wars over the area. Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but the area is predominantly populated by Armenians. After six weeks of fighting in 2020 with more than 6,500 deaths, Russia brokered a ceasefire agreement that forced Armenia to give up large areas.
Clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
Since then, there have been repeated deadly clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. In recent months, tensions over the heavily mined Nagorno-Karabakh have increased significantly again.
pg/sti (dpa, afp)
Source: DW
