Russia Brokers Armenia-Azerbaijan Truce After Flare-Up; Yerevan MoD Says Border Breach Attempt Foiled

By Jacob J
September 13, 2022 20:06 +08

Angry protesters charged in Armenian parliament

Armenia has said it lost at least 49 soldiers in Azerbaijan shelling near the ace near the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Monday night. The lingering conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians declared a breakaway republic, had flared up in 2020, resulting in a war between the caucasian neighbors.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told the parliament that Azerbaijani troops attacked Armenia's positions overnight. Armenia shelled the opposition in retaliation and Baku has said troops have died on the Azerbaijani side as well.

"At 00:05 a.m. [local time] on Tuesday, Azerbaijan launched intensive shelling, with artillery and large-caliber firearms, against Armenian military positions in the direction of the cities of Goris, Sotk, and Jermuk," Armenia's defense ministry said.

However, Azerbaijan accused Armenian forces of carrying out "large-scale subversive acts" earlier on Monday night near the border districts of Dashkesan, Kelbajar and Lachin by placing landmines and mobilizing weapons.

"The countermeasures taken by the Azerbaijani military in response to the provocation by the Armenian military are local and directed against legitimate military objects that serve as firing points," Azerbaijan's defense ministry said.

Simmering Conflict

As the simmering conflict escalated, Armenia invoked the cooperation agreement signed with Moscow after the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. Under the Russian-brokered truce, Armenia ceded swathes of territory to Azerbaijan and Russia deployed 2,000 troops to maintain fragile peace. Armenia on Tuesday appealed to the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, citing aggression from Azerbaijan.

According to Moscow Times, the Kremlin acted soon enough to negotiate a ceasefire. "We expect that an agreement reached as a result of Russian mediation on a ceasefire from 9:00 a.m. Moscow time (06:00 GMT) on Sept. 13 this year will be carried out in full," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Armenian journalist Ani Avetisyan tweeted that the Defense Ministry shared a video that showed Azerbaijani troops trying to cross Armenian border. The ministry said the attempt was foiled.

"An official video by ARM MOD reportedly shows the attempt of Azeri troops to cross the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The attempt failed according to MOD," the journalist tweeted.

What is Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict?

Nagorno-Karabakh is a primarily ethnic Armenian region but it is situated in the territory of ex-Soviet Azerbaijan. As per international law Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan but the majority ethnic Armenians have established self-government with the support of Armenia. The ethnic Armenians are majority Christians, while Azerbaijan is mainly Muslim, giving the conflict a religious undertone and linking it to the Ottoman era oppression of Armenian Christians.

History

In 1923, the Soviet Union recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as an autonomous 'oblast' within Azerbaijan. However, as the Soviet empire crumbled and both Armenia and Azerbaijan won independence from Moscow, fighting broke out in the region.

The calls in Nagorno-Karabakh to end the Azerbaijani rule escalated in 1991. The clashes resulted in the death of nearly 30,000 people, and eventually Azerbaijani troops were pushed out of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous province inside the Azerbaijan territory.

Azerbaijan takes unilateral decision to stop retaliatory actionAn Armenian soldier of the self-defense army of Nagorno-Karabakh stands near an artillery unit in the town of Martakert, where clashes with Azeri forces are taking place, in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is controlled by separatist Armenians, April 3, 2016. Reuters

1994 Ceasefire

A ceasefire was arrived at in 1994, and by then the Nagorno-Karabakh separatists, supported by Armenia, controlled the region as well as seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories. Though the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence after driving out the Azerbaijani troops, the move did not win international support.

By the time an internationally brokered ceasefire was agreed in 1994, ethnic Armenians controlled almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh, plus some surrounding Azerbaijan districts. This gave them a buffer zone, while also helping them maintain a land connection to the Armenian mainland.

The Azerbaijani threat to take back Nagorno-Karabakh, using military force if necessary, led to numerous conflicts in the following years. The biggest recent clash was in 2016, when nearly 200 people were killed. In July this year, at least 16 people died as hostilities resumed.

The Continuing Conflict

Soviet Red Army motor rifle troopers in Baku 1990 January/February.Soviet Red Army motor rifle troopers in Baku 1990 January/February. Wikimedia Commons / K. Martens

Though the 1994 ceasefire continues to hold in a technical sense, violence continued along Nagorno-Karabakh's border with Azerbaijan, as well as on the Armenia-Azerbaijan international border. "We are a step away from a large-scale war ... One of the main reasons for the current escalation is a lack of any proactive international mediation between the sides for weeks," Olesya Vartanyan of the International Crisis Group told AFP.

Role of Turkey

Turkey overwhelmingly supported Azerbaijan, terming Armenia the biggest threat to regional peace. Ankara, which has steadfastly refused to accept the 1915-16 massacre of more than a million Armenians as a genocide, is throwing its full weight behind Baku.

Over the last several decades, Turkey has tried to stymie Armenia, which lies in between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Ankara closed the common border with Armenia in 1993, a move that had immense impact on Armenia's economic growth. Though both the sides signed Protocols normalizing relations, the deal was never implemented.

What is Armenian genocide?

As per the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), "more than a million" Armenians died under the persecution of the Ottoman empire, which is modern day Turkey, during 1915-16. The Armenians were driven en masse from eastern Anatolia to the Syrian desert by the Turks. Thousands of them were killed while more perished due to starvation and diseases. While historians around the world say the mass murder was carried out in order to annihilate the Christian Armenian people, Turkey has held the view that there was no systematic plan of ethnic cleansing.

An official video by ARM MOD reportedly shows the attempt of Azeri troops to cross the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

The attempt failed according to MOD. pic.twitter.com/kRsqMVqaqw
— Ani Avetisyan (@AvetissianAn) September 13, 2022