EU calls for halt to fighting over disputed enclave
The European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday voiced alarm over the intensifying threat to civilians posed by the worst f ighting in 25 years between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, calling for swift negotiations to end hostilities.
Amid fears the conf lict could escalate into a wider regional clash, France, the United States and Russia were due to hold talks Thursday in Geneva about the f ighting that erupted Sept. 27 over the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan.
“We have seen extremely worrying reports of a surge in attacks on populated areas, which is taking a deadly toll on civilians,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, told European lawmakers, calling on both sides to “fully observe their international obligations” to protect noncombatants.
“Our position is clear: The f ighting must stop,” said Borrell, calling for negotiations without preconditions.
In recent days and nights, artillery f ire has been raining down on Nagorno- Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert, sending terrified residents into bomb shelters.
“Buildings and houses are destroyed — we are so afraid of it,” an inhabitant of the city, identified only by her first name, Sida, told the Associated Press. “How can one stand it?”
Fighting over the Delaware- sized territory, which Armenians call by its historic name Artsakh, is being watched with consternation not only in Armenia proper but also elsewhere — by members of a large diaspora, many of whom live in Southern California.
They include descendants of victims and survivors of the Armenian genocide carried out by Ottoman Turks for several years beginning in 1915. The Turkish government acknowledges mass deaths but disputes use of the term “genocide,” saying killings and displacement occurred against the backdrop of chaos and fighting as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing.
The hostilities are the fiercest since an uneasy truce in 1994 ended a war that claimed about 30,000 lives in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, as the Soviet Union was breaking up and its ex- republics were forming independent states. Since that ceasefire, Nagorno- Karabakh has been self- ruled by ethnic Armenians, but the sides did not reach any negotiated settlement.
The larger South Caucasus region is a key corridor for oil and gas, and rivals Russia and Turkey have jostled for inf luence. Russia has ties to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and a military base in Armenia; Turkey has come down squarely on the side of Azerbaijan, with which it shares ethnic and linguistic ties.
This week, the f ighting has come closer to Azerbaijan’s oil and gas pipelines, a source of energy for Europe and a key source of revenue for the Azerbaijanis. BP, the British oil company, said it had stepped up security at its facilities in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan this week accused Armenia of deliberately targeting a major oil pipeline, a charge that Armenia sharply rejected.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Tuesday traveled to the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, in a show of support. Turkey denies Armenian allegations that it has sent militia fighters from Syria to Azerbaijan, or that it has been arming its ally.
Also part of the volatile mix surrounding the conflict is Iran, which borders both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Iranian state media quoted President Hassan Rouhani as warning in televised remarks that “we must be attentive that the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan does not become a regional war.”
French Foreign Minister Jean- Yves Le Drian on Wednesday also urged a negotiated cease- fire.