Azerbaijan says military operation underway in Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan announced on Tuesday that it had launched a military operation against an Armenian enclave inside its territory, raising fears of a new armed conflict in a fragile region where the interests of Russia, Turkey and Western countries clash. more and more.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces had launched “local anti-terrorist” operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh region aimed at “disarming and ensuring the withdrawal of Armenian armed formations” from its territory. The country’s foreign ministry issued what appeared to be an ultimatum, declaring that only the “dissolution” of the unrecognized pro-Armenian government in the region would “achieve peace and stability.”

The Defense Ministry also said it had so far used high-precision weapons to target what it considered to be Armenian firing points and other military installations in the region.

Unverified video footage from the area showed explosions and the buzzing of a drone, a weapon Azerbaijan used to devastating effect in its last stand and defeat against Armenia in a 44-day war against Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

“At this moment, the capital Stepanakert and other cities and towns are under intensive fire,” the region’s pro-Armenian government, the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, said in a statement, calling the actions Azerbaijan begins “large-scale military offensive”. .”

Nikol Pashinyan, Armenian Prime Minister, said: “Armenia does not participate in military operations and I would like to emphasize once again that the Republic of Armenia does not have an army in Nagorno-Karabakh,” according to the Russian news agency Tass. . “For now, we will not take any rash action,” he added.