AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA CLASH OVER DISPUTED REGION

Worst clashes since 2016 raise spectre of war between countries

ARMENIA and Azerbaijan put themselves on a war footing after heavy fighting erupted yesterday between Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists claiming military and civilian casualties on both sides, including at least one child.

The worst clashes since 2016 had raised the spectre of a fresh large-scale war between archenemies Azerbaijan and Armenia, which had been locked for decades in a territorial dispute over Nagorny Karabakh.

In a televised address to the nation, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev vowed victory over Armenian forces.

“Our cause is just and we will win,” Aliyev said, repeating a quote from S oviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s address at the outbreak of World War 2 in Russia. “Azerbaijani army is fighting on its territory.”

Armenia and the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh declared martial law and military mobilisation.

“Get ready to defend our sacred homeland,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

Karabakh’s leader Araik Harutyunyan told an emergency Parliament session in the enclave’s main city of Stepanakert that he had “declared martial law” and a mobilisation of all those fit for military service.

Armenia said earlier yesterdays that Azerbaijan attacked civilian settlements in Nagorny Karabakh, including Stepanakert, with the attacks killing a woman and child.

Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said it had launched a “counter offensive to suppress Armenia’s combat activity and ensure the safety of the population,” using tanks, artillery missiles, combat aviation and drones.

“There are reports of dead and wounded among civilians and servicemen,” the spokesman for the Azerbaijani presidency said.

Karabakh’s ombudsman Artak Beglaryan said “there are civilian casualties”.

Ethnic Armenian separatists seized the Nagorny Karabakh region from Baku in a 1990s war that claimed 30,000 lives.

Talks to resolve one of the worst conflicts to emerge from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union have been largely stalled since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.

France, Russia and the United States have mediated peace efforts as the Minsk Group, but the last big push for a peace deal collapsed in 2010.