Fighting continues between separatists from Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.
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AFP PHOTO / AZERBAIJANI DEFENSE MINISTRY
In the past 24 hours, the fighting between separatists Nagorny Karabakh, supported by Armenia, and Azerbaijan, have left at least 39 dead, announced the authorities on Monday, raising fears of an open war between Baku and Yerevan.
Several countries, including Russia, the United States, France, Iran, the EU, have called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, except Turkey, Baku's ally.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry has acknowledged the deaths of 32 soldiers since Sunday morning and the start of hostilities in the separatist Azerbaijani region, populated mostly by Armenians.
A much heavier balance sheet
This territory has escaped Baku's control since a war in the early 1990s that left 30,000 dead.
Five Azerbaijani civilians and two Armenian civilians from Nagorno Karabakh also died, according to data announced on Sunday.
Azerbaijan has not announced its military losses.
The toll could be much heavier, however, with both sides claiming to have inflicted hundreds of losses on the opponent, broadcasting images of the destruction inflicted.
Baku claims to have killed 550 enemy soldiers, and Yerevan claims to have eliminated more than 200.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry told him that it had regained positions lost the day before, but Azerbaijan, on the contrary, claimed to have made further territorial gains.
The Azerbaijani armed forces "strike enemy positions with rockets, artillery and air force (...) and have taken several strategic positions on the outskirts of the village of Talych," said the defense ministry of this Caucasian country. which has spent lavishly on armaments in recent years thanks to its oil windfall.
“The enemy is retreating,” he said.
He also accused the opposing forces of bombing civilian positions in the Azerbaijani locality of Terter.
International call for a ceasefire
After weeks of war rhetoric, Azerbaijan said it launched a major "counter-offensive" on Sunday in response to an Armenian "aggression", using its artillery, armor and aerial bombardment on the province which has eluded it since then. fall of the USSR.
These fights, the deadliest since 2016, have caused international concern, with Russia, France and the United States - the three mediators of the conflict within the Minsk Group - calling for a ceasefire and negotiations.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused his historic enemy of having "declared war on the Armenian people", while Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev promised him to "win".
Turkey has signaled its full support for Azerbaijan, as Yerevan and the separatists accused Ankara of political and military interference, believing that Turkish mercenaries and armaments were deployed.
“Turkey is fighting against Nagorno Karabakh, not just Azerbaijan.
There are Turkish helicopters, F-16s and troops and mercenaries from different countries, ”said the president of this self-proclaimed republic Araïk Haroutiounian on Sunday evening.
Martial law
Moscow, which maintains cordial relations with the two belligerents and represents the great regional arbiter, called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, through the voice of Vladimir Putin.
Russia remains closer to Armenia, the two countries belonging to the same Moscow-dominated military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
All the Minsk Group's mediation efforts have failed to resolve this conflict and outbreaks of violence occur regularly in Nagorno Karabakh, as in 2016.
Rarer, in July 2020, Armenians and Azerbaijanis clashed for several days on their northern border.
This brief escalation had also given rise to fears of a lasting conflict and testified to growing tensions for months.
The two states have also decreed martial law and Armenia general mobilization.
Azerbaijan imposes a curfew in an entire part of the country, including the capital Baku.
An open war between the two countries raises fears of a serious destabilization of the region, especially if Turkey and Russia, which have divergent interests in the South Caucasus, intervene in the conflict.
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