{"id":5629,"date":"2020-09-28T09:36:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T09:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/?p=5629"},"modified":"2020-09-28T09:36:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T09:36:01","slug":"azerbaijan-armenia-clash-world-leaders-urge-halt-to-violence-after-24-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/2020\/09\/28\/azerbaijan-armenia-clash-world-leaders-urge-halt-to-violence-after-24-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan-Armenia clash: World leaders urge halt to violence after 24 dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

YEREVAN: The world leaders on Monday called for an end to deadly clashes between arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan, as the latest violence in the decades-long territorial dispute has killed at least 24 people.<\/p>\n

The worst skirmishes since 2016 have raised the spectre of a fresh war between the ex-Soviet rivals, locked since the early 1990s in a stalemate over the Armenia-backed breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh.<\/p>\n

Seventeen Armenian separatist fighters were killed and more than 100 wounded in the fighting, Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan said, conceding that his forces had “lost positions”.<\/p>\n

Both sides also reported civilian casualties.<\/p>\n

Karabakh separatists said one Armenian woman and a child were killed, while Baku said that an Azerbaijani family of five died in shelling launched by Armenian separatists.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan claimed it captured a strategic mountain in Karabakh that helps control transport links between Yerevan and the enclave.<\/p>\n

Armenian defence ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan, in turn, said Karabakh rebel forces killed “some 200 Azerbaijani troops and destroyed 30 enemy artillery units and 20 drones”.<\/p>\n

‘Full-scale war’<\/h2>\n

Fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia threatened to embroil regional players Russia and Turkey, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan calling on global powers to prevent Ankara’s involvement.<\/p>\n

“We are on the brink of a full-scale war in the South Caucasus,” Pashinyan warned.<\/p>\n

Read more: Turkey vows full support to Azerbaijan, calls on Armenia to give up ‘aggression’<\/a><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union swiftly urged an “immediate ceasefire”, while Pope Francis prayed for peace.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “deep concern” on Sunday, and “strongly called for an immediate end to hostilities”.<\/p>\n

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was also “extremely concerned” and urged the sides to stop fighting and return to talks.<\/p>\n

The US State Department said it had contacted the two countries and called on them to “use the existing direct communication links between them to avoid further escalation”.<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the military flareup with Pashinyan and called for “an end to hostilities”.<\/p>\n

But Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey blamed Yerevan for the flare-up and promised Baku its “full support”.<\/p>\n

“The Turkish people will support our Azerbaijani brothers with all our means as always,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan accused Armenian forces of violating a ceasefire, saying it had launched a counter-offensive to “ensure the safety of the population”, using tanks, artillery missiles, combat aviation and drones.<\/p>\n

Curfew, martial law<\/h2>\n

In a televised address to the nation earlier Sunday, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev vowed victory over Armenian forces.<\/p>\n

“Our cause is just and we will win,” he said, echoing a famous quote from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s address at the outbreak of World War II in Russia.<\/p>\n

“Karabakh is Azerbaijan.”<\/p>\n

Both Armenia and Karabakh declared martial law and military mobilisation. Azerbaijan imposed military rule and a curfew in large cities.<\/p>\n

Armenia said that Azerbaijan attacked civilian settlements in Nagorny Karabakh including the main city Stepanakert.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said there were reports of dead and wounded. “Extensive damage has been inflicted on many homes and civilian infrastructure,” it said.<\/p>\n

Ethnic Armenian separatists seized the Nagorny Karabakh region from Baku in a 1990s war that claimed 30,000 lives.<\/p>\n

Talks to resolve one of the worst conflicts to emerge from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union have been largely stalled since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n

France, Russia and the United States have mediated peace efforts as the “Minsk Group” but the last big push for a peace deal collapsed in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YEREVAN: The world leaders on Monday called for an end to deadly clashes between arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan, as the latest violence in the decades-long territorial dispute has killed at least 24 people. The worst skirmishes since 2016 have raised the spectre of a fresh war between the ex-Soviet rivals, locked since the early 1990s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5631,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5629\/revisions\/5631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}