Day: September 19, 2023

Azerbaijani forces have launched a massive assault on Nagorno-Karabakh in an attempt to ‘restore constitutional order’, demanding the surrender and dissolution of the government in Stepanakert.

On Tuesday, explosions and gunfire were heard in Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital of Stepanakert, with the authorities there reporting attacks along the entire line of contact.

Footage posted online by local journalist and OC Media contributor Marut Vanyan shows heavy gunfire and the sound of explosions in Stepanakert.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s authorities said two civilians had been killed, including one child, and at least 29 wounded. Azerbaijani authorities said one civilian had been killed by shelling near Shusha (Shushi).

Shortly after launching the offensive, Azerbaijan released a statement describing the attack as ‘anti-terrorist measures’ to ‘restore the constitutional structure of the Republic of Azerbaijan’. 

Azerbaijani authorities claimed to have broken through Nagorno-Karabakh’s defences in several places.

Nagorno-Karabakh authorities also reported on Tuesday evening that the village of Yeghtsahogh (Sarybaba) in the Shusha (Shushi) region has been completely surrounded by Azerbaijani forces, with its population of 150 trapped inside.

The Azerbaijani Presidential administration said they would not stop the war unless ‘the illegal Armenian armed groups should raise the white flag, all weapons should be handed over, and the illegal regime should dissolve itself’.

‘Otherwise, anti-terrorist measures will be continued until the end’, they said.

If these demands were met, they said the Azerbaijani government would be willing to meet representatives of the government of Nagorno-Karabakh in Yevlakh, a city in central Azerbaijan.

The authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have called for an immediate ceasefire.

Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said that several frontline villages had been evacuated, with Russian peacekeepers purportedly assisting in evacuations. Photo: Russian Ministry of Defence.

In a statement following a meeting of Armenia’s Security Council, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Armenian armed forces were not involved in the fighting, and warned against any ‘unplanned, drastic action’. 

He argued that engaging Armenia in direct conflict was Azerbaijan’s ‘main and key target and purpose’, as well as that of ‘a number of internal and external forces’.

‘Attempts to involve the Republic of Armenia in a military escalation are unacceptable for us and we will manage this process, as much as we understand that there are feelings, emotional and other problems for all of us in this situation’, he said.

Several Western countries, including the US, Germany, and France, condemned Azerbaijan’s attack and called on them to immediately cease its offensive. France also called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. 

The EU’s High Representative on Foreign Policy,  Josep Borrell, called for Azerbaijan to ‘stop the current military activities’.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry promptly dismissed their call for peace.

‘We regret the European Union’s statement that deliberately misrepresents the reasons for the current military escalation, as well as the steps taken by Azerbaijan to end the illegal activities of the Armenian armed forces against both the civilian population and the military in the sovereign territories of Azerbaijan’, they said.

Azerbaijan is fully committed to […] restoring its constitutional structure throughout Azerbaijan’, they added.

Russia has remained relatively mute despite maintaining a peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, calling on ‘both sides’ to exercise restraint. On Tuesday afternoon, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson repeated rhetoric suggesting that Armenia was unjustified in calling for UN and Russian peacekeeper support, in light of the country’s officials having recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. 

Azerbaijan began its offensive hours after claiming that four soldiers and two civilians had died in a landmine explosion near Nagorno-Karabakh, while also claiming to have come under fire in a separate incident.

Warnings of genocide and ethnic cleansing

Officials in Yerevan and Stepanakert have warned that the war is an attempt to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh of its Armenian population, or even an attempted genocide.

The attack comes after the region has been held under blockade by Azerbaijan for over nine months, with reports of severe shortages of food, medicine, and fuel, and increasing rates of illness, with many within and outside of the region warning of a humanitarian crisis. 

Washington-based human rights organisation Freedom House stated that they ‘strongly condemn the Azerbaijani government’s violent attacks in Nagorno-Karabakh’, warning that there was a risk of ethnic cleansing in the region, and stating that any attempt to forcibly change the region’s demographics was ‘illegal and unacceptable’. 

The EU’s Josep Borrell also appeared to warn against any attempt to drive out the region’s ethnic Armenians, while calling on Azerbaijan to cease fire. 

‘This military escalation should not be used as a pretext to force the exodus of the local population’, he said. 

The French Foreign Ministry also warned Azerbaijan that it would be ‘solely held responsible for the fate of the civilian populations of Nagorno-Karabakh’.

Earlier in the day, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence said they had sent SMS messages and distributed leaflets directing residents of Nagorno-Karabakh to go to ‘shelters’ they had set up on the Lachin Corridor.

The corridor, the only link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since December. 

‘In order to ensure the evacuation of the population from the dangerous area, humanitarian corridors and reception points have been established on the Lachin road and in other directions’, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said.

They also said they had warned people to ‘stay away from the military facilities and not to support the units of the Armenian armed forces’.

Russia lays blame on Armenia

While Pashinyan maintained that Armenia would not take part in military conflict, many in both Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia called on the Armenian government to aid the region in its defence. 

In Yerevan, hundreds of Armenians gathered outside the Prime Minister’s office on Tuesday afternoon, demanding that the government take action, and calling Pashinyan a ‘traitor’. Protesters also gathered in front of the Russian Embassy and UN headquarters in Yerevan, similarly calling for the bodies to intervene. 

Since the attack began, verbal relations between Armenia and Russia have grown increasingly hostile. 

Initially calling on Russian peacekeepers stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh to take ‘clear and unequivocal steps to put an end to Azerbaijan’s aggression’, Pashinyan went on to suggest that Russia had failed to warn Armenia of the impending attack. 

Pashinyan stated that Russia failing to warn Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh after Russian peacekeepers were allegedly given advance notice of the attacks by Azerbaijan were ‘strange and puzzling’ to them.

‘Of course, this is Azerbaijan’s version, but the fact is that we did not receive any information about that operation from our Russian partners’, stated Pashinyan. 

Soon after, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, wrote that Russian peacekeeping soldiers ‘continue to fulfil their tasks’ in the region, and were in ‘constant contact’ with representatives of both Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and Azerbaijani authorities, ‘with the aim of a ceasefire’. She added later that peacekeepers had been warned only a few minutes before the attack began. 

Later that day, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called on Baku and Yerevan to follow the peace agreement that ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, ‘while taking into account the new realities’. 

However, both former president Dimitry Medvedev and Russian state propagandist Margarita Simonyan explicitly laid the blame for the attacks on Armenia. 

Medvedev, who is deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, implied on Telegram that Pashinyan was responsible for the ongoing conflict, after Pashinyan blamed Russia for Armenia’s defeat in the second Nagorno-Karabakh war, recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan’s territory, ‘[flirted] with NATO’, and Pashinyan’s wife had travelled to Ukraine.

Since Russia’s failure to come to Armenia’s defence after Azerbaijani forces made incursions into Armenia in recent years, the government in Yerevan has increasingly sought to foster closer ties with the West.

Russia Today editor and prominent state propagandist Margarita Simonyan repeated similar rhetoric, suggesting that while Pashinyan was ‘demanding’ that Russian peacekeepers protect Nagorno-Karabakh, he should expect that of NATO. 

She later added that Armenians had ‘woken up’, in calling Pashinyan a ‘traitor’. 

‘An Armenian who comes to power with anti-Russian slogans is a traitor by definition. A traitor to Armenian interests, not Russian ones. Russia will manage without Armenia. Armenia without Russia — no’, wrote Simonyan. 

‘Nobody has ever helped Armenia except Russia. And no one will ever help. Not knowing this means not wanting to know. Reluctance to know is voluntary idiocy. And voluntary idiocy, as a rule, is severely punished by history.’

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

Azerbaijan increased its military build-up around Nagorno-Karabakh in the run-up to Tuesday’s operation

The situation in the South Caucasus, mainly in the Garabagh
region, is becoming more tense lately. This tension is felt not
only in the region, but also in the brotherly country Turkiye.
Thus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a statement on
the way to the solution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani issue in
Garabagh at a press conference held in Istanbul before leaving for
the UN General Conference. President Erdogan proposed a tripartite
meeting with Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Garabagh issue. In
addition to the tripartite meeting, he also sent a proposal to
Russia for a quadrilateral meeting.

It should also be noted that before this speech, a bilateral
meeting between the President of Turkiye and the President of
Russia Vladimir Putin took place. It is no secret that the Garabagh
issue was also touched upon in that meeting.

As we know, except for Russia, the Western countries that do not
belong to the region also have a special interest in the South
Caucasus, especially in the Armenia-Azerbaijan issue. However, this
interest mostly consists of pro-Armenian and biased policy against
Azerbaijan. It is likely that Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, who is aware of this, put forward a proposal to Russia,
not the West, to resolve the Garabagh issue. If this is the case,
the reaction of the West is extremely important.

Also, the European Parliament presented a report on Turkiye’s
withdrawal from the European Union. Most likely, this report is
related to Turkiye’s legitimate concern about the Garabagh issue.
However, Erdoğan, in his turn, also noted that Turkiye can part
ways with the European Union in the future if necessary.

“First of all, I would like to note that a big risk is emerging
in the region. Especially the so-called elections held by Armenia
in Garabagh, the collection of weapons and ammunition, 10,000
soldiers stationed in Garabagh, the militarization of the civilian
population into terrorists, the armed conflicts that occur day by
day, all have a meaning. President Erdogan’s speech is an effort
intended to eliminate the risk arising from all this. I hope this
threat will be averted. However, I would like to point out that the
situation is extremely delicate and critical. I think this has
already reached a very dangerous level.”

Turkish expert Abdullah Aghar mentioned these words in his
comment to AZERNEWS while clarifying the ongoing
processes.

According to him, the goal is to build peace through
negotiations. That is, it means the restoration of full sovereignty
of the territories returned by Armenia after the 44-day war.
Otherwise, the matter will be extremely sensitive. Because the
processes have become so dangerous that they hinder Azerbaijan’s
sovereignty, territorial integrity, and unitary structure. All this
should be taken into account.

As for the interest of the West in the processes in the region
and the fact that President Erdogan invited Russia, not the West,
to discuss the solution of the Garabagh issue, the expert noted
that the Western countries are keen to take the initiative in the
South Caucasus and Central Asia. However, the West should not
forget that it does not belong to this region. Therefore, this
issue should be discussed first by countries living in the same
geography.

“This approach of the West makes the problem worse. Moreover, it
leads to the emergence of greater risks. Therefore, it is extremely
important to try to resolve this process in some way through
countries that have influence, effectiveness and borders in the
region,” the expert said.

In conclusion, the Turkish expert clarified the report on
Turkiye at the EU Parliament.

“The European Parliament recently published a report. The report
stated that it is impossible for Turkiye to become a member of the
European Union under their certain required conditions. However,
they want to exclude Turkiye from normal membership and proposed to
develop real and parallel cooperation. I think this is not an
accepted membership forum. Turkiye’s declaration of will regarding
the European Union, especially at the Vilnius summit, is not
limited only to the European Union. This is an extremely important
geopolitical development that builds trust and strengthens the
geopolitical and strategic partnership with the West. But it seems
that the EU’s behavior with double standards does not meet the
requirements of this report. If the European Union continues to
behave like this, Turkiye may eventually have to approach from a
completely different paradigm,” Abdullah Aghar added.

—

Rena Murshud is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

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