Azerbaijan launches counter offensive attack on Karabakh

Azerbaijan’s military is conducting “anti-terror” operations in parts of Nagorno-Karabakh that are controlled by Armenia.

For many months, there has been a lot of conflict and disagreement about a region called the ethnic-Armenian enclave. This region is officially considered a part of Azerbaijan by the global community.

Loud noise from air raid sirens and exploding bombs could be heard in the largest city of Karabakh.

Eleven people from Azerbaijan, including both police officers and regular citizens, have died in a mine explosion and another separate incident.

Officials in the breakaway region’s defense department mentioned that the Azerbaijani military broke the ceasefire by launching missile and artillery attacks all along the contact line. Other representatives from Karabakh talked about a big and intense military attack.

The countries Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought two times over Nagorno-Karabakh. The first time was in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed, and the second time was in 2020.

Three years ago, Azerbaijan took back areas in and around Karabakh from Armenia that were under Armenian control since 1994.

Since December, Azerbaijan has blocked the only way into the enclave from Armenia, called the Lachin Corridor, and it has been successful.

On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry in Baku accused Armenian forces of continuously attacking its army positions and mentioned that it retaliated by carrying out smaller operations to fight against terrorists locally. To remove weapons and make sure Armenia’s armed forces leave our land safely.

It said it was not trying to hurt innocent people or buildings where regular people live. It claimed that it only attacked specific military targets using very accurate weapons.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke on TV and said his military was not involved. He accused Azerbaijan of attacking to get rid of the Armenian people in Karabakh.

On Tuesday, people in the city of Khankendi, also known as Stepanakert, could hear the loud noise of artillery and gunfire.

Around 120,000 Armenians live in the hilly area.

Journalist Siranush Sargsyan said that the city’s residential areas were hit, including a building next to hers.

The ombudsman responsible for protecting people’s rights in Karabakh said that two ordinary people, one of whom was a child, were killed, and some other children were hurt.

Authorities in Armenia stated that as of 2:00 PM local time (10:00 AM GMT), the condition on the country’s borders was “quite steady”.

Russia’s foreign ministry said they were only given a few minutes’ notice about the attack from Azerbaijan, and they’ve asked both countries to follow the ceasefire agreement made after the 2020 war. Toivo Klaar, who represents the EU in a specific area, said it is really important that the fighting stops right away.
The ceasefire that ended the war six weeks ago in 2020 was becoming more and more uncertain in the past few months.

On Tuesday, Laurence Broers, who is an expert on the South Caucasus region, said that the Armenian people in Karabakh were made weaker because of the blockade. He also mentioned that the Azerbaijan operation seems to be focused on taking back the entire Armenian-populated region of Karabakh.

Hikmet Hajiyev, who helps the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, suggested that the ethnic-Armenian administration that wants to separate should end itself.

Around 3,000 Russian peacekeepers were sent to observe the ceasefire in 2020, but Russia’s focus has shifted to their complete invasion of Ukraine.

The leader of Armenia recently said that Russia was leaving the area without much planning or warning. Azerbaijan and Turkey have been strong allies and have stood by each other.

Azerbaijan said they are not increasing the number of soldiers in the area. On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross was given permission to bring help to Karabakh using two routes. One route is through the Lachin Corridor from Armenia, and the other is through Azerbaijan’s Aghdam road.

People were hoping that tensions would calm down, but then officials from Azerbaijan said that six individuals died, including four police officers, when their vehicle hit a landmine in the Khojavand area. This area was taken back by Azerbaijan during the war in 2020.

The military department showed pictures of the wrecked car, but Armenian officials in Karabakh said it was Azerbaijan’s military that broke the ceasefire.