The Ministry of Defence in Azerbaijan has initiated “counter-terrorism” actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is currently under Armenian control. Tensions have remained elevated for months over this ethnically Armenian area, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
There have been reports of eleven Azerbaijani police and civilians losing their lives in separate incidents involving a mine explosion and another event. Air raid alarms have been heard in the primary city of Karabakh.
Azerbaijan and Armenia, neighboring nations, have engaged in armed conflict twice over Nagorno-Karabakh, first in the early 1990s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and again in 2020.
Since December, Azerbaijan has effectively blocked the sole passage into the enclave from Armenia, referred to as the Lachin Corridor.
On Tuesday, the Defence Ministry in Baku alleged that Armenian forces were consistently shelling army positions, asserting that they had responded by initiating “localized, counter-terrorism operations… to disarm and ensure the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces units from our territories”. They emphasized that civilians and civilian infrastructure were not their targets.
Armenia’s Defence Ministry contradicted these claims, stating that the reported Armenian fire did not align with reality.