Azerbaijan launches military action in Karabakh ‘to disarm Armenians’
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Azerbaijan launched military action in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a step that could presage a new war in the volatile area but which Baku said was necessary to restore constitutional order and drive out Armenian military formations.
Karabakh is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory but part of it is run by breakaway ethnic Armenian authorities who say the area is their ancestral homeland. It has been at the centre of two wars – the latest in 2020 – since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Loud and repeated shelling was audible from social media footage filmed in Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, called Khankendi by Azerbaijan, on Tuesday.
The Karabakh separatist human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanyan, said the civilian population had sustained “multiple casualties” as a result of strikes by Azerbaijan’s military. Reuters could not immediately verify his assertion.
In a statement announcing its operation, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry spoke of its intention to “disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces from our territories, (and) neutralise their military infrastructure”.
