Armenia announced a cease-fire on the border with Azerbaijan, starting from eight in the evening yesterday, Wednesday local time, while Tehran said that it does not accept changing the historical border between Iran and Armenia against the backdrop of the conflict between Baku and Yerevan.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that 105 soldiers of his country's forces were killed in the clashes with Azerbaijan during the past two days. last May.
In a speech to his country's parliament on Wednesday, the Armenian official stated that he had requested military assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organization under Article 4 of the defense agreement, and Pashinyan added that he might declare martial law if the situation at the border further deteriorated.
For its part, Azerbaijan offered earlier on Wednesday to hand over the bodies of 100 Armenian soldiers it said were killed in the clashes that erupted last Monday night. Armenia".
The Prime Minister of Armenia told members of his country's parliament that he may declare martial law if the deterioration of the situation at the border worsens (Reuters)
On Wednesday, the Azeri Defense Ministry announced the killing of 50 of its soldiers during the clashes.
The two sides exchanged accusations of launching new attacks in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and violating a truce brokered by Russia, but it did not last long.
The confrontations between the Azerbaijani and Armenian forces are the most intense since the war between the two sides in 2020.
historical borders
In a related context, the Iranian Foreign Ministry called yesterday, Wednesday, to preserve the border with Armenia away from any change in light of the tensions between Baku and Yerevan.
This came in a telephone conversation between Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jehon Bermov.
Abdullahian said that Tehran stresses the need to preserve the territorial integrity of all countries, including Azerbaijan and Armenia, adding that his country considers the border between Iran and Armenia a "historic corridor that should be preserved away from any change."
The fighting is now between Azerbaijan and Armenia over this important corridor that connects the two sides of Azerbaijan and at the same time connects Azerbaijan with Turkey and isolates Iran from Armenia
Azerbaijan and Turkey say that it is within the latest ceasefire agreement, while Armenia and the Russians deny it pic.twitter.com/LYH3URcwt2
— Abdullah Al-Omari (@MUTARED) September 14, 2022
Iran, a neighbor of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, has traditionally maintained a neutral stance on the conflict between the two Caucasian neighbors.
Various statements came from Turkey, which is also a neighbor of the two sides of the confrontations. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that the situation resulting from Armenia's violation of the agreement concluded with Azerbaijan after the 2020 war cannot be accepted.
The Turkish president added, during a public speech in the capital, Ankara, that Armenia should bear the consequences of its aggressive stance towards Azerbaijan.
Russia and America
Russia called on both sides of the conflict to abide by the ceasefire, while Washington expressed concern about the continued escalation on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and urged the two countries to stop hostilities and engage in dialogue.
It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict for decades over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which historically had a majority of the Armenian population but was a legal part of Azerbaijan under Soviet rule.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Karabakh region declared its independence from Baku under the name of the Republic of Artsakh, with the support of Yerevan, sparking a 3-year war.
The war ended in 1994 with the victory of Armenia, and Karabakh remained under de facto Armenian control for a quarter of a century, although its status was never internationally recognized.
After decades of stalemate, Azerbaijan suddenly recaptured large parts of this region in a military campaign in 2020, forcing Armenia to make major territorial concessions.