Nagorno-Karabakh: seven Azerbaijani soldiers killed in fighting against Armenia on Tuesday

Published on : 11/17/2021 – 10:59

In the aftermath of the most violent clashes since the end of the war between Yerevan and Baku last year, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense on Wednesday (November 17th) reported the death of seven Azerbaijani soldiers in the fighting on Tuesday. to Armenian forces near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Ten Azerbaijani soldiers were also injured in these clashes, according to the same source.

Armenia has for its part reported one soldier killed, 24 missing and 13 prisoners during these clashes. Yerevan also said it had lost two military positions captured by Baku forces.

After several weeks of escalating tensions at the border, fighting broke out on Tuesday between the soldiers of these two rival Caucasian countries, who are vying for control of the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

>> To see: “Armenia: the Azerbaijani threat at the borders”

Yerevan announced Tuesday evening that a truce had been concluded after the mediation of Russia, a regional power. Yerevan and Baku blame each other for this new violence.

Precarious peace

These latest battles illustrate the precarious balance that reigns in the powder keg of the Caucasus, almost a year to the day after the end of a bloody six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh.

These clashes occurred despite the presence in this region of Russian peacekeepers, deployed in November 2020 as part of a ceasefire negotiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war. last year.

Tuesday’s clashes are the most intense since the end of the conflict which left more than 6,500 dead and after which Armenia was forced to cede to Azerbaijan several regions forming a glacis around Nagorno-Karabakh .

Populated mainly by Armenians, the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, supported by Yerevan, seceded from Azerbaijan after the fall of the USSR, leading to a first war in the 1990s. This conflict had caused the death of 30 000 people and made hundreds of thousands of refugees.

With AFP