Azerbaijan attacks Nagorno-Karabakh – UN Security Council wants to meet

AMore than two dozen people were killed on the first day of a military operation launched by Azerbaijan against the Armenian-inhabited South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The human rights commissioner for the internationally unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), Gegam Stepanyan, spoke of at least 27 deaths. There were at least seven civilians among them – three women, two children and two men. More than 200 other people were injured. Armenia’s protective power, Russia, called on the parties to the conflict early on Wednesday morning to avoid civilian casualties and to immediately stop hostilities.

According to Stepanyan, more than 7,000 residents from 16 towns were brought to safety from Azerbaijani shelling. According to local information, a major problem with the evacuation measures is the massive fuel shortage caused by a month-long Azerbaijani blockade of the region.

Authoritarian-run Azerbaijan began a broad military operation to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday morning. Although the region is located on Azerbaijani territory, the majority of it is inhabited by Armenians. The two former Soviet countries have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. The ceasefire after the last war in 2020, in which Azerbaijan, which was well-armed thanks to gas and oil revenues, had already conquered large parts of Karabakh, was repeatedly broken.

Russia calls for a halt to hostilities

The Russian Foreign Ministry called for a halt to recent hostilities. “Due to the rapid escalation of armed conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, we call on the parties to the conflict to immediately end the bloodshed, stop hostilities and avoid casualties among the civilian population,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement early Wednesday morning the state news agency Tass reported.

Meanwhile, in New York, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called for Thursday, diplomatic sources said. Armenia had previously asked the committee for help. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also met separately with his colleagues from Azerbaijan and Armenia and, according to a statement, offered Italian mediation. Iran also offered itself as a mediator.

Azerbaijan cited the laying down of arms and the abdication of the Armenian leadership in the Nagorno-Karabakh region as a condition for the end of the current military operation. Azerbaijan has been criticized internationally for its violent actions. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, for example, demanded: “Azerbaijan must stop the shelling immediately and return to the negotiating table.”

Protecting power Türkiye provides support

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made similar comments. In a phone call with Azerbaijan’s leader Ilham Aliyev, he stressed that there was no military solution and that the parties needed to resume dialogue, Foreign Ministry spokesman Matthew Miller said. Blinken noted Aliyev’s expressed willingness to stop military actions and hold a meeting of representatives of Azerbaijan and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Blinken emphasized that this must be implemented immediately. Backing for Baku, however, came from Turkey.

Turkey, which is also influenced by Islam, is considered Azerbaijan’s protecting power, whereas Christian Orthodox Armenia traditionally relies on the support of Russia, which also has its own soldiers stationed in the region.

Now, however, Moscow needs its fighters primarily for its own war of aggression against Ukraine. Observers had therefore already feared that Azerbaijan could use this unstable situation for military action. Even before the latest shelling began, the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh was catastrophic because Azerbaijan blocked Armenia’s only access to the exclave – the so-called Lachin corridor.

Violent protests against the government broke out in Armenia’s capital Yerevan on Tuesday evening and there were clashes with the police. According to media reports, the officers used stun grenades. The demonstrators demanded more decisive action from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and support for the Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian embassy in Yerevan was also surrounded by angry people. According to the Armenian Ministry of Health, 16 police officers and 18 demonstrators were injured in the city center by evening.