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An image taken from YouTube footage released by the Armenian Defense Ministry showing Azerbaijanian troops crossing the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and approaching the Armenian positions Armenian Defense Ministry via AP/PA Images
Caucasia

Armenia and Azerbaijan report 155 deaths after ceasefire violations

Hostilities reignited between the longtime adversaries this week.

ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN accused each other of instigating new rounds of shelling across their borders today and reported that 155 troops from the two countries have died since hostilities reignited between the longtime adversaries this week.

Armenia’s Defence Ministry accused Azerbaijani forces of launching combat drones in the direction of the Armenian resort town of Jermuk overnight and renewing shelling with artillery and mortars in the morning in the direction of Jermuk and the village of Verin Shorzha.

The Azerbaijani military, in turn, charged that Armenian forces shelled its positions in the Kalbajar and Lachin districts of Azerbaijan, near the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said 105 of his country’s troops have been killed since fighting erupted early yesterday, while Azerbaijan said it lost 50 troops.

Azerbaijani authorities said they were ready to unilaterally hand over the bodies of up to 100 Armenian soldiers.

The ex-Soviet countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal. Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers under the deal.

Russia moved quickly yesterday to negotiate an end to the latest hostilities but a cease-fire it sought to broker has failed to hold. The governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia traded blame for violations of the cease-fire while the international community urged calm.

“Despite the appeals of the international community and the reached cease-fire agreement, Armenian armed forces continue attacks and provocations in the state border using artillery and other heavy weapons,” Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement today.

It said two Azerbaijani civilians were injured by the Armenian shelling of the Kalbajar and Lachin districts.

The ministry rejected Armenia’s claim that Azerbaijani troops had fired on a Russian military outpost in Armenia, calling the claim an  as an “absolute lie”. It alleged Armenia was making such assertions in an attempt to turn a Moscow-dominated security alliance “into a tool for its dirty deeds”.

Pashinyan said today that his government has asked Russia for military support under a friendship treaty between the countries and also requested assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

“Our allies are Russia and the CSTO,” Pashinyan said, adding that the collective security pact states that an aggression against one member is an aggression against all.

“We don’t see a military interference as the only possibility, because there are also political and diplomatic options,” Pashinyan said, speaking in his nation’s parliament.

Moscow has engaged in a delicate balancing act in seeking to maintain friendly ties with both nations. It has strong economic and security ties with Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base, while also has been developing close cooperation with oil-rich Azerbaijan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of other CSTO members discussed the situation in a call late yesterday, urging a quick cessation of hostilities. They agreed to send a mission of top officials from the security alliance to the area.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the mission will deliver a report assessing the developments to the leaders of CSTO member states. “The situation has remained tense,” Peskov said in today’s conference call with reporters.

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