Today, Thursday, the United Nations called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to return to the negotiating table and reach a permanent peace agreement, after renewed clashes between the two parties over the past two days.
An emergency session of the UN Security Council was held at the permanent headquarters of the United Nations in New York on the recent developments in the South Caucasus.
In his speech, Miroslav Jenka, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, said, "In the evening of September 12, fierce fighting erupted on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and yesterday evening (Wednesday) a ceasefire agreement was announced (..) We welcome With this agreement, we hope it will continue."
Jinka added that this fighting was the largest and most recent since 2020, and Armenia reported the killing of 105 of its soldiers and the wounding of 6 civilians, and Azerbaijan, for its part, reported the killing of 71 soldiers and the wounding of two civilians.
Jinka expressed deep concern about the latest developments and urged the parties to take immediate and concrete steps to de-escalate tensions.
He stressed that the fighting that erupted between the two countries this week highlights the fact that the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues to face serious obstacles, and this escalation also underscores the urgent need for the parties to move forward on border demarcation and de-escalation of tensions.
The UN official warned that this week's events are a stark reminder that tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan have the potential to destabilize the region.
He stressed the United Nations' support for the mediation efforts undertaken by the Russian Federation and the European Union, and the need to bring the parties back to the negotiating table and achieve peace and stability in the region.
For its part, Armenia announced a ceasefire on the border with Azerbaijan as of eight in the evening yesterday, Wednesday local time, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that 105 soldiers of his country were killed in clashes with Azerbaijan during the past two days, and Armenia accused its neighbor of occupying an area of lands during the last two days confrontation.
On the other hand, 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.
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.
And the agency "Novosti" quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that work on a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan has not stopped.