Civilians and soldiers have been killed in heavy fighting that erupted in the Nagorno Karabakh region on Sunday, Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists said, accusing each other of initiating hostilities.
“Deaths and injuries have been reported among civilians and soldiers,” the Azerbaijani presidency said, while the Karabakh public ombudsperson said there were “civilian casualties” among the population of the region.
Nagorno Karabakh is a secessionist region of Azerbaijan, populated mainly by Armenians and supported by Armenia.
A woman and a child have died in the area, for his part reported the press secretary of the Armenian Ministry of Defense.
Two Azerbaijani helicopters were shot down, the ministry, which supports the separatists, said earlier.
Azerbaijan for its part claimed to have launched a “counter-offensive” after an attack by the separatists, and reported only one downed machine.
“We severely condemn Armenia’s attack on Azerbaijan”, reacted the spokesperson for the Turkish presidency on Twitter, assuring Azerbaijan of “Turkey’s full support”.
Nagorno Karabakh was the scene of a war in the early 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives. Since then, the Azerbaijani authorities want to regain control, by force if necessary, while peace talks have been deadlocked for many years.
Fighting regularly pits separatists against Azerbaijanis, as well as Yerevan and Baku. In 2016, serious armed clashes almost degenerated into war in Karabakh, and fighting also pitted Armenians and Azerbaijanis on their border in July 2020.
