Nagorno-Karabakh conflict enters week 2: Armenia, Azerbaijan still trading fire

A military confrontation between Azerbaijan and Armenia that erupted over the South Caucasus region of Karabakh more than a week ago, has now expanded to cities outside the conflict zone with no signs of abating, despite international calls for immediate ceasefire.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, but it has been under Armenia’s control since the early 1990s. The territory declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991.

The recent clashes — the worst in decades — erupted on September 27, with both Yerevan and Baku accusing each other of provocation.

Azerbaijan radars register missile launch from Armenia

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said the radar systems of its air defense force had registered the launch of missiles towards the territory of Azerbaijan in the early hours of Monday.

It said the missiles were allegedly launched from positions located in the Jermuk, Kafan, and Berd regions of Armenia.

Earlier in the day, the separatist government in Khankendi (Stepanakert), the capital of the self-proclaimed republic of Karabakh, said the Azerbaijani military was preparing for an offensive.

Khankendi under artillery strikes

Meanwhile, Russia’s Sputnik reported that four explosions were heard outside Karabakh main city of Khankendi, which has been under shelling since Friday.

It said about 20 artillery strikes targeted Khankendi. The explosions sounded close to the city center and there were artillery shells from multiple rocket launchers.

The separatist government said that "at the moment the Azerbaijani Armed Forces are carrying out high-intensity missile strikes on Stepanakert.”

Local residents, according to Sputnik, were hiding in basements. It is not known where the shells landed exactly.

Armenia vows adequate response

Armenia has vowed adequate response to any “provocation” from Baku. 

Armenia's Foreign Ministry accused Azerbaijani forces of "the deliberate targeting of the civilian population."

"The enemy has resumed its offensive in the southern direction of the Artsakh [Karabakh] front line,” the Armenian Defense Ministry's spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanyan, wrote on Facebook.

“Fierce fighting is ongoing. Units of the [Karabakh] Defense Army are engaged in a considerable counterattack on the enemy forces," he added.

The separatist government’s press secretary Vahram Poghosyan said that their response will not be long in coming, and threatened that the forces will target Azerbaijani military facilities.

"We once again urge the civilian population living in these cities to leave their homes immediately to avoid possible casualties,” Poghosyan said.

He said unlike Baku, the Armenian-backed forces were not targeting the civilian population.

Baku suburbs struck by Armenian missiles: Azeri govt.

The Azerbaijan Republic says its Armenian enemy has launched missile attacks against an area near the Azeri capital of Baku.

This is while Azerbaijan Defense Ministry said late on Sunday that Ganja, a city of more than 330,000 in the country's west, had come under fire.

It said one civilian was killed and four wounded in the attack on Ganja.

Armenia-backed forces claimed to have destroyed an airbase in the city. Baku, however, denied it as a "provocation.”

Authorities in both countries have reported nearly 250 dead, including almost 40 civilians over the past week,

Leader of the self-proclaimed republic of Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, also threatened to consider "military facilities in Azerbaijan's big cities" as legitimate targets.

"I call on the residents of these cities to immediately leave," he said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Azerbaijani officials, however, claimed that Harutyunyan had been seriously wounded while in a bunker hit by bombing. His office denied.

Turkey, an ally to Azerbaijan, accused Armenia of "targeting civilians" in Ganja, reiterating it will fully support Baku in the conflict.

Turkey lambastes Armenia for ‘attacks’ on civilians in Azerbaijan’s Ganja

Armenia says it has not directed fire ‘of any kind’ towards Azerbaijan.

Armenia previously said it “stands ready to engage" with Russia, France and the US — who co-chair the Minsk group —on halting the conflict.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, however, said the Minsk group had failed for the past three decades to make progress in resolving the dispute.

The president, who said peace could only be achieved if Armenian-backed forces “fully” withdraw from Karabakh, gave Yerevan an ultimatum late on Sunday to set a timetable for withdrawal from the disputed region.

"Nagorno-Karabakh is Azeri territory; we must return and we will return," Aliyev said in a televised address. 

Russia, which has close ties with Armenia, expressed concern over "the increase of casualties" among civilians.

Armenian separatists seized Karabakh in a move supported by Yerevan after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. Some 30,000 people were killed in a conflict that ensued, which ended with a fragile ceasefire in 1994, with about 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory remaining under the control of Armenian forces.

The latest clashes follow a flare-up along the two counties’ border in July, which claimed the lives of 17 soldiers from both sides. In April 2016, some 110 people were killed in the most serious fighting in years.

While Azerbaijan has promised to take back the area, by the use of force if necessary, Armenia says it will do all it can to hold on to the territory.

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