On Tuesday (September 19), Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against the Armenian-controlled Karabakh territory in an attempt to impose its will on the separatist province, raising fears of a new conflict with Armenia in the volatile Caucasus region.
Azerbaijani strikes have reportedly killed scores and injured hundreds, drawing condemnation from the United States, France, and Germany, among others. Russia, the region’s traditional power broker, has been accused of being too preoccupied with its own conflict in Ukraine.
While Karabakh is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, a portion of it is governed by separatist Armenian authorities who claim it as their ancestral homeland.
Thousands are affected by Azerbaijani strikes
Since the strikes began, at than 7,000 residents from 16 communities have been evacuated, according to separatist leaders.
“Over 7,000 people have been evacuated from 16 civilian communities of Askeran, Martakert, Martuni, and Shushi regions of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Gegham Stepanyan, Karabakh’s rights ombudsman, on X.
According to media sources citing Karabakh separatist authorities, at least 25 individuals were killed, including two civilians, and 138 more were injured after Baku initiated military strikes. These assertions, however, could not be independently verified.
Ruben Vardanyan, a top official in Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian administration until February, said, “A really serious situation has unfolded here…Azerbaijan has started a full-scale military operation against 120,000 inhabitants, of which 30,000 are children, pregnant women, and old people.”
Azerbaijan pummeled the territory with artillery, combat aircraft, and attack drones, according to Karabakh officials, and their soldiers were “trying to advance” inside the territory.
Baku regarding the military operation
Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy assistant to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, stated that ground forces have been deployed and have burst through Armenian lines in various locations. Armenian rebels have refuted the assertion, claiming that “fighting continues along the entire line of contact.”
Azerbaijan plans to “close a chapter of animosity and confrontation,” according to Hajiyev, adding that they will no longer allow armed forces on their land, which “on a daily basis, challenges Azerbaijan’s security and sovereignty.”
According to the Azerbaijani defense ministry, their forces seized more than 60 military positions and damaged up to 20 military vehicles and other equipment.
“Illegal Armenian armed forces” must surrender, said Azerbaijan’s presidency, adding that “Otherwise, the anti-terrorist measures will continue until the end.”
It was unclear whether Armenia would interfere or if Baku’s measures would spark a full-fledged war including Yerevan.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the two countries have fought two wars over the disputed region, the most recent of which ended in 2020 after a ceasefire brokered by Russia.
Armenia is experiencing unrest and demands for a coup
Armenia is experiencing upheaval, with angry protestors clashing with police in Yerevan, demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan quit. According to the Armenian Health Ministry, more than 30 individuals were injured in the violence, with 16 being hospitalized.
“We must not allow certain people, certain forces to deal a blow to the Armenian state,” said the Armenian PM, in a televised address. He added, “There are already calls, coming from different places, to stage a coup in Armenia. (https://www.vidaliaonion.org/) ”
He also accused Azerbaijan of engaging in “ethnic cleansing of Karabakh Armenians” and said that the Armenian army was not involved in the fighting and described the situation at the border between the two countries as “stable”.
How have nations reacted?
The US, European Union, France, and Germany have all criticized Azerbaijan’s military operations and urged Baku to resume talks with Armenia about the future of Karabakh. Armenia has requested assistance from members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as Russian peacekeepers on the ground to intervene.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is in contact with both Azerbaijan and Armenia and has urged dialogue, adding that guaranteeing civilian safety was the most essential problem.
Meanwhile, Turkey stated its support for Baku’s efforts to maintain its territorial integrity.
What caused the conflict?
Azerbaijan controls Nagorno-Karabakh, which has an ethnic-Armenian majority.
It was an independent territory inside the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic during the Soviet era.
Though the region received little attention due to the lack of international borders, that changed after Moscow lost control of its outlying republics and Nagorno-Karabakh was formally included inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory.
During the USSR’s demise from 1988 to 1994, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fought a grueling series of conflicts over the region, with the Armenians seizing control of large swaths of land and causing hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azerbaijanis to flee.
Since then, the Karabakh-Armenians have unilaterally declared independence and maintained a de facto autonomous state, citing a 1991 vote boycotted by Azerbaijanis.
That scenario remained constant for nearly three decades, with the two sides trapped in a stalemate maintained by a line of bunkers, landmines, and anti-tank defenses, and was commonly cited as an example of one of the world’s few “frozen conflicts.”
However, in 2020, Azerbaijan conducted a 44-day war to reclaim territory, seizing hundreds of square kilometers on all sides of Nagorno-Karabakh. This left the ethnic Armenian exclave connected to Armenia proper by a single route, the Lachin Corridor, ostensibly protected by Russian forces as part of a Moscow-brokered truce accord.