Iran begins war games near Azerbaijan border

Tehran (AFP)

Oct 1, 2021

The Iranian army’s ground forces began holding maneuvers near the country’s border with Azerbaijan on Friday, state media reported, despite criticism from its neighbor.

The exercises took place in open areas in northwestern Iran, said state television, which showed tanks, howitzers and helicopters firing at targets on the ground.

“We respect good neighborly relations but we do not tolerate the presence of Zionist regime (Israeli) elements and Islamic State terrorists in the region,” ground forces commander Brigadier General Kioumars Heydari told state TV.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had criticized the Iranian war games in an interview published on Monday.

“Every country can carry out any military drill on its own territory. It’s their sovereign right. But why now, and why on our border?” he told Turkish news agency Anadolu.

His comments were rebuffed by Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh.

“The drills carried out by our country in the northwest border areas… are a question of sovereignty,” Khatibzadeh said in a statement on Tuesday.

Iran and Azerbaijan share a border of around 700 kilometers (430 miles).

A major supplier of arms to Azerbaijan, Israel came under diplomatic fire from Armenia during last year’s conflict between the Caucasus neighbors.

Iran and Azerbaijan share a border of around 700 kilometers (430 miles).

Ethnic Azeris make up around 10 million of Iran’s 83 million people.

Source: Space War.

Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_begins_war_games_near_Azerbaijan_border_999.html.

Armenians, Azerbaijan trade blame over breach of peace deal

December 12, 2020

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenian officials and Azerbaijan on Saturday accused each other of breaching a peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s leader threatened to crush Armenian forces with an “iron fist.”

The new clashes mark the first significant breach of the peace deal brokered by Russia on Nov. 10 that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over broad swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding lands which were held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century.

Separatist officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said the Azerbaijani military launched an attack late Friday that left three local ethnic Armenian servicemen wounded. Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region to monitor the peace deal reported a violation of the cease-fire in the Gadrut region on Friday. The report issued Saturday by the Russian Defense Ministry didn’t assign blame.

Later in the day, the Armenian Defense Ministry also charged that the Azerbaijani army mounted an attack in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reacted on Saturday by blaming Armenia for the new clashes and threatened to “break its head with an iron fist.”

“Armenia shouldn’t try to start it all over again,” Aliyev said during a meeting with top diplomats from the United States and France who have tried to mediate the decades-old conflict. ”It must be very cautious and not plan any military action. This time, we will fully destroy them. It mustn’t be a secret to anyone.”

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement late Saturday that its forces thwarted Armenian “provocations” and restored the cease-fire. Armenian officials said the fighting raged near the villages of Hin Tager and Khtsaberd, the only settlements in the Gadrut region that are still controlled by Armenian forces. They noted that the two villages have been fully encircled by the Azerbaijani army, which controls the only road leading to them.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

In 44 days of fighting that began in late September and left more than 5,600 people killed on both sides, the Azerbaijani army pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to accept last month’s peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim much of the separatist region along with surrounding areas. Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to monitor the peace deal and to facilitate the return of refugees.

Azerbaijan marked its victory with a military parade on Thursday that was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and involved more than 3,000 troops, dozens of military vehicles, and a flyby of combat aircraft.

The peace deal was a major shock for Armenians, triggering protests calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Pashinyan, who has refused to step down. He described the peace agreement as a bitter but necessary move that prevented Azerbaijan from taking over all of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, and Aida Sultanova in London, contributed to this report.

Azerbaijan holds parade after Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

December 10, 2020

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — More than 3,000 troops took part in a military parade in Azerbaijan on Thursday to celebrate reclaiming control over broad swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding lands in a conflict with Armenia.

The parade attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who strongly backed Azerbaijan, also involved dozens of military vehicles, and a flyby of combat aircraft. The display, which also featured a Turkish commando brigade and Turkish drones, was held a month after a Russia-brokered deal ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev showered Turkey with praise, hailing its support for the ex-Soviet Caspian Sea nation as “an example of our unity, our brotherhood.” Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

In 44 days of fighting that began in late September and left more than 5,600 people killed on both sides, the Azerbaijani army pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to accept a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim much of the separatist region along with surrounding areas.

In his speech, Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s continued support to Azerbaijan, saying that “as long as Turkey and Azerbaijan work hand in glove, they will continue to overcome all difficulties and run from one success to the next.”

Erdogan voiced hope that Armenia would “take lessons” from its defeat and noted that Turkey was ready to reopen the border with Armenia if it takes unspecified “positive steps.” Turkey and Azerbaijan have shut their borders with Armenia ever since the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted, a blockade that has weakened the economy of the landlocked country.

“As long as positive steps are taken, we would open our gates, which were closed,” Erdogan said. “It’s not that we want to keep our doors closed to Armenia … we have no enmity with the people of Armenia. Our problem is with the Armenian leadership.”

The Nov. 10 peace deal became a major trauma for Armenians, triggering a month of protests calling for the resignation of the country’s prime minister, Nikola Pashinyan. Pashinyan has refused to step down, describing the peace agreement as a bitter but necessary move that prevented Azerbaijan from taking over the entire Nagorno-Karabakh.

As Aliyev and Erdogan watched the parade in Baku, several thousand people in Armenia’s capital demonstrated in front of the government building to push the demand for Pashinyan to resign. Protesters tried to enter the building but were pushed back by police who arrested scores.

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Daria Litvinova and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, contributed to this report.

Azerbaijani leader: Cease-fire may improve Armenia relations

November 21, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — The president of Azerbaijan said Saturday he hopes the ceasefire that ended a six-week war with Armenia this month will lead to improving relations between the countries. President Ilham Aliyev made the statement as a high-level Russian delegation visited Azerbaijani’s capital, Baku. The delegation, which included Russia’s foreign and defense ministers, also visited the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Russia negotiated the ceasefire signed last week, under which Azerbaijan is to regain sizeable areas of land that had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since a previous war in the early 1990s. The agreement is backed by the presence of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers.

“I hope that today’s ceasefire and our further plans to normalize relations with Armenia, if perceived positively by the Armenian side, can create a new situation in the region, a situation of cooperation, a situation of strengthening stability and security,” Aliyev said.

The two countries do not have diplomatic relations, and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border has been closed since the war over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh that ended in 1994 with Armenian forces in control of the region and large swaths of adjacent territory.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Aliyev favors unblocking the “vital trade routes” in the region. Russia and Azerbaijan also agree on the need to create conditions for ethnic conciliation in the region, Lavrov said.

Animosity between Christian Armenians and Muslim Azerbaijanis is strong. Many Armenians leaving the territories that Azerbaijan is taking over set their houses on fire rather than allow Azerbaijanis to use them.

Azerbaijan has been angered to discover the wholescale ruination of towns that came under Armenian control in the 1990s war. In Yerevan, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said his country’s peacekeepers were in control of the road that connects Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital with Armenia and that they are ensuring the return of people who fled the capital during the recent fighting.

Azerbaijani leader hails handover of region ceded by Armenia

November 20, 2020

AGHDAM, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijani forces entered the war-ravaged ghost town of Aghdam on Friday, regaining a once-beloved city over a quarter of a century after being driven out by Armenian forces.

Aghdam and the surrounding region of the same name are the first of several territories adjacent to separatist Nagorno-Karabakh to be turned over under a ceasefire that ended six weeks of intense fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Today, with a feeling of endless pride, I am informing my people about the liberation of Aghdam,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an address to the nation. “Aghdam is ours!” Crowds of people carrying national flags gathered in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to celebrate the handover.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself but substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

Heavy fighting that flared up Sept. 27 marked the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict between the two ex-Soviet nations in over a quarter-century, killing hundreds of people and possibly thousands more.

Aliyev called the takeover of the region a “great political success” that wouldn’t have been possible without military gains. “Azerbaijan was able to achieve what it wanted on the political arena after having won a brilliant victory on the battlefield,” the president said.

The agreement, celebrated as a victory in Azerbaijan, has left many Armenians bitter. Mass protests erupted in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, immediately after the peace deal was announced last week, and many ethnic Armenians have been leaving the territories that are to be handed over to Azerbaijan, setting their houses on fire in a bitter farewell gesture.

Although regaining Aghdam is a triumph for Azerbaijan, the joy of returning is seared with grief and anger as Azerbaijanis confront its devastation. The city of Aghdam was once home to 50,000, known for its white homes and an elaborate three-story teahouse, but it is so ruined that it’s sometimes called the “Hiroshima of the Caucasus.”

After the population was driven out in 1993 by fighting, they were followed by Armenian pillagers who stripped the city bare, seeking both booty and construction materials. One of the city’s happier eccentricities, the bread museum, is in ruins. The cognac factory is gone.

Today, the only structurally whole building is the mosque; from the top of the elaborately patterned minarets, the view is of a vast expanse of jagged concrete and houses reduced to shells, all encroached upon by a quarter-century’s growth of vegetation.

Under Armenian control, the mosque was used for years as a stable for cattle and swine, a defilement that deeply angered Azerbaijnis. The livestock are gone now, but the mosque is decrepit. A few soldiers and a Muslim cleric held prayers within its graffiti-scarred and flaking walls on Friday.

“Now a new period begins for Aghdam,” Aliyev said. “We have big plans.” Aliyev said his government is aiming to restore Aghdam and the other territories after the areas have been cleared of mines. “The Armenians believed that after this destruction, the Azerbaijani population would never return to these lands. They were wrong. They do not know that in the heart of the Azerbaijani people — in the soul of our people, native lands live and will live forever,” he said.

Aghdam was a place many Azerbaijanis felt a special affection for, not least because of its status as the breeding center for the speedy Karabakh horse which is considered the national animal. Another bitter yet proud memory of Aghdam also remains — it was the home of the first victims of the region’s descent into chaos.

In February 1988, two days after the Nagorno-Karabakh parliament petitioned to link the autonomous region with Soviet Armenia, a group of angry men set off from Aghdam to the regional capital Stepanakert. Before they got there, they were confronted by police and ethnic Armenian villagers; two of the protesters were shot to death.

News of their deaths sparked rage in Aghdam and a crowd gathered weapons to begin to head to Stepanakert. But a local woman stood on the roof of a vehicle and threw her scarf in the road — a gesture that by local tradition forbade men from going further. The dramatic incident was memorialized by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the Soviet Union’s most renowned poet, who called her action “almost crazy/the great insanity of kindness/the only wisdom that saves us.”

In marked contrast to the thorough destruction of the city of Aghdam, ethnic Armenians have taken assiduous care of one of their major historical sites in the province. The foundations of Tigranakert, which dates back more than 2,000 years, have undergone archaeological excavation and some of what has been found has been placed in an 18th century fortress.

As the Aghdam handover approached, workers this week labored to remove some of the artifacts including a carved stone, which required the efforts of several men to lift. “These artifacts belong to this city and we are taking these artifacts out to take to our museum so that our Azerbaijani brothers don’t get them,” said one of the workers, who gave his name only as Arman. “Because they will deface them to the very last pebble.”

Associated Press writers Jim Heintz and Daria Litvinova in Moscow and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.

Azerbaijani army enters territory ceded by Armenian forces

November 20, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Units of the Azerbaijani army have entered the Aghdam region, a territory ceded by Armenian forces in a cease-fire agreement that ended six weeks of heavy fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Friday.

The truce, brokered by Russia last week, stipulated that Armenia hand over control of some areas its holds outside Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders to Azerbaijan. The first one, Aghdam, is to be turned over on Friday.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself but substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

Heavy fighting that flared up Sept. 27 marked the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict between the two ex-Soviet nations in over a quarter-century, killing hundreds and possibly thousands of people.

The truce last week halted the violence after several failed attempts to establish a lasting cease-fire. It was celebrated as a victory in Azerbaijan, but sparked mass protests in Armenia, with thousands regularly taking to the streets to demand the ouster of the country’s prime minister.

Azerbaijan delays takeover, denounces fleeing Armenians

November 15, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Azerbaijan on Sunday postponed taking control of a territory ceded by Armenian forces in a cease-fire agreement, but denounced civilians leaving the area for burning houses and committing what it called “ecological terror.”

The cease-fire ended six weeks of intense fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and territories outside its formal borders that had been under the control of Armenian forces since 1994. The agreement calls for Azerbaijan to take control of the outlying territories. The first, Kelbajar, was to be turned over on Sunday.

But Azerbaijan agreed to delay the takeover until Nov. 25 after a request from Armenia. Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said worsening weather conditions made the withdrawal of Armenian forces and civilians difficult along the single road through mountainous territory that connects Kelbajar with Armenia.

After the agreement was announced early Tuesday, many distraught residents preparing to evacuate set their houses ablaze to make them unusable to Azerbaijanis who would move in. “Armenians are damaging the environment and civilian objects. Environmental damage, ecological terror must be prevented,” Hajiyev said.

Prior to a separatist war that ended in 1994, Kelbajar was populated almost exclusively by Azerbaijanis. But the territory then came under Armenian control and Armenians moved in. Azerbaijan deemed their presence illegal.

“The placement and settlement of the Armenian population in the occupied territory of the Kelbajar region was illegal … All illegal settlements there must be evicted,” Hajiyev said. The imminent renewal of Azerbaijani control raised wide concerns about the fate of Armenian cultural and religious sites, particularly Dadivank, a noted Armenian Apostolic Church monastery that dates back to the ninth century.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev assured Russian President Vladimir Putin, who negotiated the cease-fire and is sending about 2,000 peacekeeping troops, that Christian churches would be protected. “Christians of Azerbaijan will have access to these churches,” Aliyev’s office said in statement Sunday.

Azerbaijan is about 95% Muslim and Armenia is overwhelmingly Christian. Azerbaijan accuses Armenians of desecrating Muslim sites during their decades of control of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories, including housing livestock in mosques.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry on Sunday denounced vandalization of the Ghazanchetsots cathedral in the Azerbaijan-held city of Shusha as “outrageous.” The Armenian Apostolic Church earlier said vandals defaced walls of the church after Azerbaijani forces took the city.

Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous republic of Azerbaijan during the Soviet period. A movement to join with Armenia arose in the late Soviet years and after the Soviet Union collapsed, a war erupted in which an estimated 30,000 died and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.

Sporadic clashes erupted after the war ended in 1994 and international mediators unsuccessfully sought for a resolution of the dispute. Full-scale fighting flared anew on Sept. 27. Azerbaijan made significant advances and a week ago announced that it had seized the strategically critical city of Shusha. The cease-fire agreement came two days later.

Armenia says 1,434 servicemen died in this year’s fighting, but civilian casualties are unclear. Azerbaijan hasn’t stated its losses. The cease-fire agreement and cession of territories was a strong blow to Armenia and prompted protests against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

On Saturday, Artur Vanetsyan, the leader of a small center-right party who formerly headed the national security service, was arrested on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Pashinian. He was released from custody Sunday and it was unclear if the charges against him would stand.

The agreement also dismayed many Armenians who had hoped for Russian support in the conflict. Russia and Armenia are part of a defense alliance and Russia has a large military base in Armenia. “Our nation has lost everything, our heritage, everything. We have nothing left. I can’t say anything. I’m only begging Russian people to help us, so that at least others can have a better life in our own land,” said Seda Gabrilyan, a weeping mourner at the Sunday burial of a Nagorno-Karabakh soldier in Stepanakert, the regional capital.

Aida Sultanova in London, Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Kostya Manenkov in Stepanakert, contributed to this report.

Armenia, Azerbaijan agree to end fight in Nagorno-Karabakh

November 10, 2020

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan announced an agreement early Tuesday to halt fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan under a pact signed with Russia that calls for deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a 1994 truce ended a separatist war in which an estimated 30,000 people died. Sporadic clashes occurred since then, and full-scale fighting began on Sept. 27.

Several cease-fires had been called but were almost immediately violated. However, the agreement announced early Tuesday appeared more likely to take hold because Azerbaijan has made significant advances, including taking control of the strategically key city of Shushi on Sunday.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Facebook that calling an end to the fight was “extremely painful for me personally and for our people.” Soon after the announcement, thousands of people streamed to the main square in the Armenian capital Yerevan to protest the agreement, many shouting, “We won’t give up our land!” Some of them broke into the main government building, saying they were searching for Pashinian, who apparently had already departed..

The agreement calls for Armenian forces to turn over control of some areas it held outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh, including the eastern district of Agdam. That area carries strong symbolic weight for Azerbaijan because its main city, also called Agdam, was thoroughly pillaged, and the only building remaining intact is the city’s mosque.

Armenians will also turn over the Lachin region, which holds the main road leading from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The agreement calls for the road, the so-called Lachin Corridor, to remain open and be protected by Russian peacekeepers.

In all, 1,960 Russian peacekeepers are to be deployed in the region under a five-year mandate. The agreement also calls for transport links to be established through Armenia linking Azerbaijan and its western exclave of Nakhcivan, which is surrounded by Armenia, Iran and Turkey.

Azerbaijani forces on Monday shot down a Russian helicopter that was flying over Armenia near the border with Nakhchivan, killing two servicemen. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said the helicopter was flying low and “in the context of these factors and in light of the tense situation in the region and increased combat readiness in connection with possible provocations of the Armenian side, the duty combat crew decided to open fire to kill.”

The seizure of Shushi, which Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claimed Sunday and was confirmed by Nagorno-Karabakh’s presidential spokesman Monday, gave Azerbaijan a significant strategic advantage. The city is positioned on heights overlooking the regional capital of Stepanakert, 10 kilometers (six miles) to the north.

“Unfortunately, we are forced to admit that a series of failures still haunt us, and the city of Shushi is completely out of our control,” Vagram Pogosian, a spokesman for the president of the government in Nagorno-Karabakh, said in a statement on Facebook. “The enemy is on the outskirts of Stepanakert.”

Since the 1994 end of the previous war, international mediation efforts by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s “Minsk Group” to determine the region’s final status faltered and the region was separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by a demilitarized zone.

Aliyev on Monday urged U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to intensify mediation efforts. In a congratulatory letter to Biden on his election victory, Aliev said, “Azerbaijan expects the United States and other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to step up their efforts to find a just solution to the conflict.”

Armenia says more than 1,200 Armenian troops have been killed in the war. Azerbaijan hasn’t stated its losses.

Associated Press writers Jim Heintz in Moscow and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.

Armenia asks Moscow for help amid Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

October 31, 2020

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s leader urged Russia on Saturday to consider providing security assistance to end more than a month of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, and both sides in the hostilities accused each other of breaking a mutual pledge not to target residential areas hours after it was made.

The fighting represents the biggest escalation in decades in a long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the separatist territory. As Azerbaijani troops pushed farther into Nagorno-Karabakh, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to quickly discuss possible security aid to Armenia.

There was no immediate response from the Kremlin. Russia, which has a military base in Armenia and has signed a pact obliging it to protect its ally in case of foreign aggression, faces a delicate balancing act, of trying to also maintain good ties with Azerbaijan and avoid a showdown with Turkey.

Pashinian’s request puts Russia in a precarious position: joining the fighting would be fraught with unpredictable consequences and risk an open conflict with Turkey, while refusing to offer protection to its ally Armenia would dent Moscow’s prestige.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. The latest outburst of hostilities began Sept. 27 and left hundreds — perhaps thousands — dead, marking the worst escalation of fighting since the war’s end.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met Friday in Geneva for a day of talks brokered by Russia, the United States and France, co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that tries to mediate the decades-long conflict.

The talks concluded close to midnight with the two sides agreeing they “will not deliberately target civilian populations or non-military objects in accordance with international humanitarian law.” But shortly after the mutual pledge was announced by the Minsk Group co-chairs, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities accused Azerbaijani forces of firing rockets at a street market and a residential building in the separatist region’s capital, Stepanakert. They said that residential areas in the town of Shushi also came under Azerbaijani shelling.

In Stepanakert, shop owners came to their stalls to collect their merchandise and clear the debris after the shelling. “It seems they reached these agreements, but there is no truce at all,” said Karen Markaryan, a shop owner. “People don’t believe these empty words. And what will happen next is only known to God.”

Azerbaijan’s defense ministry denied targeting civilian areas, and in turn accused Armenian forces of shelling several regions of Azerbaijan. The rapid failure of the latest attempt to contain the fighting follows the collapse of three successive cease-fires. A U.S.-brokered truce frayed immediately after it took effect Monday, just like two previous cease-fires negotiated by Russia. The warring sides have repeatedly blamed each other for violations.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has insisted that Azerbaijan has the right to reclaim its territory by force after three decades of fruitless international mediation. He said that Armenia must pledge to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh as a condition for a lasting truce.

Azerbaijani troops, which have relied on strike drones and long-range rocket systems supplied by Turkey, have reclaimed control of several regions on the fringes of Nagorno-Karabakh and pressed their offensive into the separatist territory from the south.

On Thursday, Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist leader said Azerbaijani troops had advanced to within 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) of the strategically located town of Shushi just south of the region’s capital, Stepanakert, which sits on the main road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

With Azerbaijani troops moving deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia’s prime minister made his first public plea for Russia’s assistance since the latest fighting started. While Pashinian stopped short of directly asking Moscow to intervene militarily, he asked Putin to conduct “urgent consultations” on the “type and amount” of assistance that Russia could offer to ensure the security of Armenia. The Armenian leader argued that the fighting is raging increasingly close to the border of Armenia and pointed at alleged attacks on the Armenian territory, according to a statement released by his office.

During more than a month of fighting, Armenia and Azerbaijan have repeatedly accused each other of taking the fighting beyond Nagorno-Karabakh. Each side has denied the opposite claims. Retired Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhisnky, the former chief of the Russian Defense Ministry’s international cooperation department, said Moscow would stay away from the conflict.

“I exclude the Russian military’s involvement,” Buzhinsky was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “Azerbaijan is far too important for Russia to wage a war against it and Turkey.” He noted that Azerbaijan has tried to avoid hitting Armenian territory, so “there is no reason for the Russian military intervention.”

According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 1,166 of their troops and 39 civilians have been killed. Azerbaijani authorities haven’t disclosed their military losses, but say the fighting has killed at least 91 civilians and wounded 400. Putin said last week that, according to Moscow’s information, the actual death toll was significantly higher and nearing 5,000.

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of using white phosphorus munitions in fighting over forests close to residential areas. Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan put what he said was a short video of the attack on Twitter, saying it demonstrated Azerbaijan’s “total disrespect of its commitments, continued aggression, devastation of civilian population and use of banned weapons.”

Azerbaijan has denied the accusations of using the incendiary weapons.

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.

Azerbaijan says 2,783 troops killed over Nagorno-Karabakh

December 03, 2020

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan said Thursday it lost nearly 2,800 soldiers in 44 days of fighting with Armenian forces over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the first time it has disclosed its military casualties.

The hostilities ended Nov. 10 with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim the territories that Armenian forces had controlled for more than a quarter-century. Azerbaijan had not released information on its military casualties until Thursday when the Defense Ministry said 2,783 troops were killed and more than 100 are still missing. Another 1,245 are being treated in medical facilities.

The government also said 94 of its civilians were killed and more than 400 were wounded in shelling. Armenia’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that at least 2,718 Armenian servicemen were killed in the fighting. Scores of Armenian civilians were also killed.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

In fierce fighting that began Sept. 27, the Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces and pushed deep into the separatist territory. The Moscow-brokered peace agreement saw the return to Azerbaijan of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and also required Armenia to hand over all of the regions it held outside the separatist territory. Azerbaijan completed reclaiming those territories on Tuesday when it took over the Lachin region located between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.

Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for a period of at least five years to monitor the deal and facilitate the return of refugees. The Russian troops also will ensure safe transit between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia across the Lachin region.

Azerbaijan celebrated the end of fighting as a national triumph, and President Ilham Aliyev declared Thursday that Nov. 8 will be celebrated nationally as Victory Day to mark the takeover of Shusha, a key city in Nagorno-Karabakh, by Azerbaijani forces.

Aliyev had earlier set the holiday for Nov. 10, when the peace deal took effect, but he reconsidered because Turkey, which is Azerbaijan’s main ally, celebrates Ataturk Memorial Day on that date. Turkey has extended its clout in the region by strongly backing Azerbaijan. Earlier this week, Russian and Turkish military officials signed documents to set up a joint monitoring center to ensure the fulfillment of the peace deal.

The peace deal has sparked outrage in Armenia. Several hundred opposition protesters rallied Thursday in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, blocking several streets as they demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Artur Vanetsyan, the former head of the National Security Service who leads the Homeland opposition party, said in televised remarks that “each day that Pashinyan retains the prime minister’s post represents a national security threat.”

Armenia’s opposition holds him responsible for failing to negotiate a quicker end to the hostilities at more beneficial terms, but it vows to uphold the peace deal if he steps down. On Thursday, 17 Armenian opposition parties named veteran politician Vazgen Manukyan as their candidate for prime minister. The 74-year-old Manukyan held the post in 1990-91 when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union and later served as defense minister during the separatist war in the early 1990s.

Associated Press writers Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Aida Sultanova in London contributed.