Azerbaijan launched military action and “anti-terrorist” operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Asia housing roughly 120,000 Armenians, according to a statement from the country’s defense ministry on Tuesday.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said it was only targeting “legitimate military” positions in the Karabakh area, but Armenian officials from inside the region said that the capital and surrounding villages were “under intense shelling,” according to The Associated Press. Azerbaijan has been accused of committing an ongoing “genocide” by imposing a blockade around the Karabakh territory and preventing vital resources from being imported, starving Armenians inside the territory. (RELATED: ‘Why Are We Denying This?’: Experts Call Out Biden Admin For ‘Being Silent’ On Armenian Persecution)
⚠️Azerbaijan has launched a widespread artillery assault on Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh. After imposing an 9-month-long blockade on the 120.000 Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, causing starvation and immense psychological distress, Azerbaijan is now deliberately… pic.twitter.com/hnWoGo28Z0
— EAFJD (@eafjd) September 19, 2023
“A really serious situation has unfolded here,” Ruben Vardanyan, a former top official in Karabakh, said on X. “Azerbaijan has started a full-scale military operation against 120,000 inhabitants, of which 30,000 are children, pregnant women and old people.”
The disputed Karabakh territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it is often referred to as part of Armenia as the population is largely made up of ethnic Armenians. Azerbaijan installed a blockade against Karabakh in December of 2022, and since that time, Armenians living in the region have had restricted access to food, medicine and oil.
Footage from inside Karabakh depicts shelling against Armenian military targets as well as aftermath of bombings from inside Stepanakert, the region’s capital. The sudden conflict sparked concern of a potential revival of a full-scale war between Azerbaijan and Armenia that had ceased in 2020, according to the AP.
Azerbaijan is shelling civilian residential areas of #Stepanakert This is a building next to us with no military target in vicinity. pic.twitter.com/EZtJsAEBNg
— Siranush Sargsyan (@SiranushSargsy1) September 19, 2023
Thus far, 25 people, including two civilians, have been killed in Tuesday’s attacks, and 138 others, including 29 civilians and children were left wounded, according to Karabakh human rights ombudsman Geghan Stepanyan, the AP reported.
“The United States is deeply concerned by Azerbaijan’s military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls on Azerbaijan to cease these actions immediately,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “As we have previously made clear to Azerbaijan, the use of force to resolve disputes is unacceptable and runs counter to efforts to create conditions for a just and dignified peace in the region.”
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said the operation was launched to “disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces from our territories” in a larger effort to “restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan.” But Armenia maintains that it has not deployed military forces in Karabakh, and said Azerbaijan was using the claim as an excuse to commit “ethnic cleansing” against Armenians, according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry.
Religious differences have historically fueled the conflict between the two countries, as the overwhelming majority of Armenia is Christian and the majority of Azerbaijan is Muslim, according to Christianity Today. Christian Armenians suffered a mass genocide in the early 20th century at the hands of the Ottoman empire, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1.2 million people, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
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