Armenia stated on Saturday it will use “all obligatory means” to guard ethnic Armenians from assault by Azerbaijan, because the opposing sides pounded one another for a seventh day and the most recent worldwide peace name fell on deaf ears.
Azerbaijan stated Armenia bore full accountability for the brand new outbreak of the decades-old battle, which threatens to tug in regional powers akin to Russia and Turkey.
The loss of life toll rose to no less than 230 within the combating over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan that broke away from its management within the 1990s.
A day after French President Emmanuel Macron phoned Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev with a brand new proposal for mediation, the rhetoric on each side appeared if something to be hardening.
“The president of Azerbaijan positioned your complete accountability on the management of Armenia for the break-off of negotiations and the armed confrontation,” Aliyev’s press service stated in its abstract of the decision.
Armenia’s armed forces have up to now held again from getting into the warfare alongside these of Nagorno-Karabakh. However Pashinyan, in a televised handle, portrayed the battle as a nationwide wrestle and in contrast it to the nation’s warfare with Ottoman Turkey within the early 20th century.
“It is a new Sardarapat, and every of us needs to be able to dedicate himself to 1 intention, the identify of which is victory,” he stated.
The Armenian overseas ministry stated Armenia, because the guarantor of Nagorno-Karabakh’s safety, would take “all the mandatory means and steps” to stop what it known as “mass atrocities” by the forces of Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey.
Each these international locations have repeatedly denied the involvement of Turkish forces, in addition to assertions by Armenia, Russia and France that Syrian rebels are combating on the Azeri aspect.
Azerbaijan hit again, saying ethnic Armenians from Syria, Lebanon, Russia, Georgia, Greece and the United Arab Emirates had been deployed or have been on their method to function as “overseas terrorist fighters” on the ethnic Armenian aspect.
Armenia says it was Azerbaijan that reopened the battle by launching a serious offensive on Sept. 27, whereas Baku says it was pressured to reply to provocations by the opposite aspect.
Whereas Russia, america and France have known as for an finish to hostilities, Turkey has staunchly supported the Azeris and has repeated that what it calls Armenian “occupiers” should withdraw, rejecting “superficial” calls for for a ceasefire.
The clashes are the worst for the reason that 1990s, when some 30,000 folks have been killed. They’ve raised worldwide concern about stability within the South Caucasus, the place pipelines carry Azeri oil and fuel to world markets.
