Fierce clashes left at least 30 Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers dead on Saturday as Russia and the West urged an immediate ceasefire, after a major escalation in violence over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said 18 Armenian troops were killed and some 35 wounded in the “largest-scale hostilities” since a 1994 truce. This truce had ended a war that had seen Armenian-backed fighters seizing the territory from Azerbaijan.
Sarkisian did not specify if the troops were from the forces of unrecognised Karabakh, which claims independence but is backed by Yerevan, or Armenia’s army. Earlier, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that 12 of its soldiers were killed in the clashes and a military helicopter shot down.
The surge in fighting over the disputed territory reportedly also claimed the lives of one Armenian and one Azeri civilian after they accused each other of unleashing heavy weaponry across the volatile front line.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of launching a “massive attack along the Karabakh front line using tanks, artillery, and helicopters” on Friday night. Azerbaijan, however, insisted it had counter-attacked after coming under fire from “large-calibre artillery and grenade-launchers”.
Sarkisian said that clashes were continuing Saturday evening “in the north and south” of the front line but insisted the “armed forces of Karabakh are in control of the situation.”
Ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control of the mountainous Nagorny Karabakh region in the early 1990s war that claimed some 30,000 lives. The foes have never signed a peace deal despite the 1994 ceasefire.
The region is still internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan and the two sides frequently exchange fire across the front, but the latest episode marked a surge in violence and sparked frantic appeals for peace from international powers.
Azeri forces claimed that they had taken control of several strategic heights and a village in the Armenian-controlled territory, but Yerevan denied the claim as “disinformation”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an immediate end to fighting along the front line.
President Putin calls on the parties in the conflict to observe an immediate ceasefire and exercise restraint in order to prevent further casualties.Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu held phone talks with their counterparts in Armenia and Azerbaijan to urge a de-escalation in the fighting.
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