Azerbaijan

Bloody battles in Nagorno-Karabakh

The simmering conflict in the South Caucasus region has again flared up. Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of being for the new struggles is responsible. It should be at least 30 deaths.

Soldiers of the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh in a guard post in Agdam (archive photo)

The Azerbaijani Ministry of defense informed that in the Fighting twelve of his own soldiers had been killed. On the Armenian page 18 members of the military arrived, according to President Serzh Sargsyan were killed. It was the heaviest fighting since the beginning of the truce in 1994, said Sargsyan after a Meeting with the national security Council in Yerevan.

The fighting erupted in the border area of the disputed area in the night to Saturday. Both sides made each other responsible. The Armenian defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan had attacked “with tanks, artillery and helicopters to massively”. The Azerbaijani units had been defeated, where they had a “suffered heavy losses”. The government in Baku has confirmed, meanwhile, Armenian information, according to an Azerbaijani military helicopter shot down.

The Azerbaijani defense Ministry said its troops had been attacked by “large calibre artillery and rocket launchers”. Some of the more than 120 fired shells had hit residential areas. The Azerbaijani troops have immediately initiated “retaliation” and two strategically important hills and a village in Nagorno-Karabakh occupied. In addition, six enemy tanks and 15 artillery had been destroyed-positions.

The Ministry of defence of Armenia in Yerevan

The Ministry of defence of Nagorno-Karabakh, supported by Armenia, stated that during the shelling of the Armenian villages in the disputed Region, a twelve-year-old Boy had been killed. The foreign Ministry in Baku reported a killed Azerbaijani civilians.

Putin urges cease-fire

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on both sides, the fire immediately. The parties to the conflict would need to enter into an “immediate ceasefire” and exercise restraint to avoid further casualties, he ordered his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov explain. The Russian defense Minister Sergei Shoigu led with his colleagues in the capitals of Yerevan and Baku crisis phone calls. Shoigu called on both to stabilize the situation quickly, as the news Agency reported to Interfax. Russia sees itself as a protecting power in Armenia. The Armenian head of the government Hovik Abrahamjan convened in the capital, Yerevan, an emergency meeting of his Cabinet.

Also, Federal foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on the parties to the conflict to cessation of hostilities. “I am in great concern over the military escalation,” said Steinmeier in Berlin, especially “the loss of human life, also among the civilian population”. It could be in this conflict has no military solution, said the Minister in the name of the organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE), chaired by Germany.

The two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, arguing for many years, the Region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The territory belonged to the Soviet Union to the Muslim Republic of Azerbaijan, although it is inhabited by a majority of Christian Armenians. Proarmenische rebels have brought the end of the 80s with Yerevan’s support under its control.

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Until today, not a peace Treaty

In the course of a year-long war killed an estimated 30,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the Fighting. In 1994, a weapons arrest in force, shall be considered as brittle. A peace Treaty, today there are not. International mountain is not considered Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan, Armenia to recognize it.

The little mountain area on the border between the two countries is largely of payments from Yerevan, depending on the and virtually just over the road from Armenia to reach. The oil-rich Azerbaijan, whose defense budget was a higher than Armenia’s entire state budget, has threatened repeatedly to Nagorno-Karabakh reclaim should remain in international efforts to resolve the conflict unsuccessful. The government in Yerevan assured that you can keep any Offensive.

As a mediator, the so-called Minsk group of the organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is used in the conflict. It includes Russia, the USA, Germany, France, and Turkey, among others.

kle/uh (afp, dpa, rtre, ape)