Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to rise and the two countries continue to blame each other for attacking civilian areas. Both countries agree that this is the bloodiest fighting in the South Caucasus region for more than 25 years.
The international community is concerned as ceasefire messages from all over the world continue to arrive. Jens Stoltenberg, the chief of NATO urged the countries to immediately end the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, the place that belongs to Azerbaijan according to the law but is populated by ethnic Armenians.
For now, the chances for a ceasefire are little to zero, after hundreds of people were killed last weekend which was the bloodiest in recent times and involved artillery, fighter planes, and tanks.
Officials from Azerbaijan said that Azeri cities outside Nagorno-Karabakh had been struck, taking the fighting closer to a territory from which pipelines carry Azeri gas and oil to Europe.
The President of Azeri, Ilham Aliyev had an interview shown on Monday by Turkey’s state broadcaster, in which he said that Armenia must withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azeri territories for military action to stop.
‘’We do not have eyes on any other country’s lands, but what is ours should be ours,’’ said Aliyev.
According to Reuters, Aliyev has ignored a ceasefire appeal by the United States, Russia, and France, who have led mediation efforts in the intermittent conflict since the 1990s, and said in Monday’s interview that any peacemaking must involve Turkey.
‘’Turkey must definitely be in any upcoming peace process. A peace process will surely be started. Clashes cannot go on forever, so the sooner the better,’’ said Aliyev.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan has no intention of backing off. He made several comments on Facebook on Monday, in which he called the servicemen who were demobilized last year to volunteer to fight.
‘’I want to invite those people and tell them they are going to fight a war of survival for their fatherland,’’ said Pashinyan.
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