NAGOTNO-KARABAKH, 29 September, 2020, (Aljazeera): At least 26 more separatist fighters have been killed in clashes with Azerbaijani troops in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, the rebels’ defence ministry said, bringing their military death toll to 84, in the fiercest round of fighting in more than a quarter of a century.
Al Jazeera also learned on Tuesday that the total number of civilians killed has risen to 11 – nine in Azerbaijan and two in Armenia, bringing the total death toll to 95.
“This is a life-and-death war,” Arayik Harutyunyan, the Nagorno-Karabakh leader, was quoted by Reuter’s news agency as saying in a news briefing.
World leaders have urged a halt in fighting after the worst escalation since 2016 raised the spectre of a fresh war between the ex-Soviet rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The UN Security Council will hold emergency talks behind closed doors later on Tuesday, after France and Germany led a push for the issue to be placed on the agenda.
Fierce clashes continued throughout the day on Monday, officials in Baku and Yerevan said.
On Monday evening, Azerbaijani forces launched a “massive offensive at the Karabakh front line’s southern and northeastern sectors,” said Armenia’s Ministry of Defense spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan.
“Twenty-six servicemen of Karabakh’s Defence Army died” in action, the Karabakh’s defence ministry said in a statement late on Monday.
“Decades-long dispute
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a territorial dispute since the 1990s when Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, declared independence after a war that left some 30,000 people dead.
No country recognises Karabakh’s independence – not even Armenia – and it is still considered part of Azerbaijan by the international community.
Azerbaijan has not released information on military casualties since the latest fighting broke out.
Fighting between Muslim Azerbaijan and majority-Christian Armenia could destabilise the wider region and embroil countries including Russia and Turkey.
Russia, which has a military alliance with Armenia, sells sophisticated weapons worth billions of dollars to both Baku and Yerevan.
Armenia has accused Turkey – which backs Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan – of meddling in the conflict.