It is the march towards war in the Caucasus.
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HANDOUT / AFP / ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY
Armenia and Azerbaijan were on the brink of war on Sunday, with deadly fighting erupted between Azerbaijani forces and the Yerevan-backed breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh.
The belligerents have reported military and civilian casualties.
According to the Armenian side, a woman and a child were killed.
A major conflict involving Azerbaijan and Armenia could lead to the intervention of competing powers in the Caucasus region, Russia and Turkey.
The conflict around Nagorno Karabakh, which seceded from Azerbaijan with Armenian support, has fueled regional tensions for thirty years.
After the announcement of the first fighting on Sunday morning, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian decreed "general mobilization" and the establishment of "martial law", as did the authorities of Karabakh.
“Let us firmly support our State, our army (…) and we will win.
Long live the glorious Armenian army!
”He wrote on Facebook.
Moscow and Paris call for calm
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev also pledged victory.
“The Azerbaijani army is fighting today on its territory, defends its territorial integrity, delivers devastating blows to the enemy.
Our cause is just and we will win, ”he said, in a speech on television.
Moscow called as early as Sunday morning "for an immediate ceasefire" and for talks, while the two camps are rejecting responsibility for the hostilities.
France, mediator in the conflict with Russia and the United States within the framework of the Minsk Group, also called for "an immediate end to hostilities".
A spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a traditional ally of Baku, denounced on Twitter an "attack on Armenia".
A revion mainly populated by Armenians and Armenians
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said for its part to have launched a "counter-offensive on the entire front line" of Karabakh, in order to "put an end to military activities of the armed forces of Armenia".
"Deaths and injuries have been reported among civilians and soldiers," added the Azerbaijani presidency, while the Karabakh public ombudsperson said there were "civilian casualties".
No figures have been put forward, while the Karabakh Defense Ministry said it had inflicted "heavy losses" on the adversary.
Nagorno Karabakh is a secessionist region of Azerbaijan, populated mainly by Armenians and supported by Armenia.
It was the scene of a war in the early 1990s that left 30,000 dead, and since then the Azerbaijani authorities have wanted to regain control, by force if necessary.
Peace talks have been deadlocked for many years.
Fights regularly oppose separatists and Azerbaijanis, but also Yerevan and Baku.
In 2016, serious clashes had already almost degenerated into war in Karabakh, and deadly fighting also pitted Armenians and Azerbaijanis on their northern border in July 2020.
Both sides are used to blaming each other for these outbreaks of violence.
President Aliev threatened Armenia with reprisals on Friday because of his "aggressive behavior" and accused Yerevan of "deliberately failing the negotiations" of peace on Karabakh.
He estimated that Armenia was preparing “tens of thousands of men” to attack Azerbaijan.
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