Azerbaijan said on Tuesday it had launched a military operation against an Armenian enclave within its territory, raising fears of a new armed conflict in a fragile region where the interests of Russia, Turkey and Western countries increasingly clash.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces had launched “local anti-terrorist” operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh area with the aim of “disarming and ensuring the withdrawal of Armenian armed formations” from its territory. The country’s Foreign Ministry issued what appeared to be an ultimatum, declaring that only the “dissolution” of the unrecognized pro-Armenian government in the region would “achieve peace and stability.”
The Defense Ministry also said it had been using high-precision weapons so far to attack what it said were Armenian firing points and other military installations in the area.
Unverified video footage from the region showed explosions and the drone of a drone, a weapon Azerbaijan used to devastating effect. when he fought and defeated Armenia for the last time in a 44-day war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.
“At this moment, the capital, Stepanakert, and other cities and towns are under intense fire,” the pro-Armenian government of the region, the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, said in a statement, describing Azerbaijan’s actions as the beginning of a ” large-scale military offensive. .”
Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia, said: “Armenia does not participate in military operations, and I want to point out once again that the Republic of Armenia does not have an army in Nagorno-Karabakh,” according to the Russian Tass news agency. . “At the moment we will not take any hasty measures,” he added.
