BAKU (Azerbaijan) • Fierce fighting involving tanks, aircraft and artillery broke out between Armenian and Azerbaijan forces yesterday in the latest flare-up of a decades-long conflict over disputed land.
Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry said it launched a "counter-attack" after accusing Armenians of firing on its military positions and civilian settlements near the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia said Azerbaijan started bombarding along a contact line separating the two forces and shelled civilians, including in the region's capital, Stepanakert.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared martial law and ordered a general mobilisation, after accusing Azerbaijan of "pre-planned aggression".
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said in a state TV address that "we'll win as our cause is just".
Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has broken out repeatedly since Armenians took control of the territory and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Hundreds were killed in a five-day war in 2016 before Russia pressured both sides to resume a cease-fire that was first brokered in 1994.
Despite decades of mediation by the United States, France and Russia, no peace deal has been signed.
Russia called on both sides to halt fighting immediately and return to negotiations to ease tensions, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said.
France "reiterates its commitment to reach a negotiated and durable settlement to the conflict" with "respect for international law", the French Foreign Ministry said, adding it was "deeply concerned about the large-scale confrontations".
European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed the urgency of relaunching talks under the auspices of the so-called "Minsk Group" led by France, Russia and the US. The EU "calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities" and for "strict observance of the ceasefire", he said.
Turkey vowed complete support for Azerbaijan "with all our means".
It has close cultural and linguistic ties with Azerbaijan, and no diplomatic relations with Armenia due to a dispute over mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire which Yerevan, capital of Armenia, says is a genocide.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Armenia of "being the biggest threat in the region to peace and stability" and criticised the international community for failing to give the "necessary and sufficient reaction" to Armenia's "aggression".
Mr Pashinyan called on the global community to ensure that Turkey does not get involved in the conflict.
The Azeri army is using tanks, artillery, missiles and aircraft against Armenian positions, the Defence Ministry in Baku said. As many as 12 Armenian anti-aircraft systems had been destroyed, it added.
The defence ministry of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region said it had destroyed four Azeri helicopters, 15 drones and 10 tanks.
Both sides reported fatalities.
About 10 Armenian serviceman died in the fighting, Radio Liberty reported Nagorno-Karabakh Security Council secretary Samvel Babayan as saying.
Civilians have been urged to go into shelters after Azerbaijan shelled Stepanakert, said Mr Vahram Poghosyan, a presidential spokesman in the unrecognised republic. "Our response will be proportional, and full responsibility is on the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan," he added.
The conflict comes after tensions between the two sides rose sharply last week, when Mr Aliyev alleged that Armenia was massing forces near Nagorno-Karabakh for a new war. Armenia dismissed the claim, accusing him of preparing for a war.
As the fighting raged, Facebook and other social media appeared blocked in Azerbaijan and Internet access was slow in some areas.
"Armenia is occupying our territory," Mr Aliyev said in his speech. "We'll put an end to this occupation."
BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
