Armenia, Azerbaijan Trade Harsh Accusations Over Continued Clashes

This morning, Armenia accused Turkey of providing direct military support to Azerbaijan, amid tough clashes between the two former Soviet republics over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The fighting, which continued for the second day in a row, is the fiercest since 2016 and renewed concerns about stability in the South Caucasus region, which is an international corridor for oil and gas pipelines.

According to international law, the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan, but the Armenians, who make up the vast majority of its population, reject Baku rule. The region split from Azerbaijan during a conflict in 1988, before the armed confrontations between both sides led Azerbaijan to lose control of the region and seven other adjacent regions. A ceasefire agreement was signed in 1994 after thousands were killed and many more displaced.

The two countries, however, frequently trade accusations of launching attacks around the region and on the borders between them.

The Armenian Ministry of Defense announced that 16 soldiers were killed and more than a hundred others were injured, according to a preliminary statistic. The Foreign Ministry said Turkey has a "direct presence on the ground." It added that Turkish military experts are "fighting side by side" with Azerbaijan.

Earlier, Interfax news agency quoted Armenia's ambassador to Russia Vardan Toujanyan saying that Ankara had transferred about four thousand fighters from northern Syria to Azerbaijan, and they had already entered the battlefield.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed his support for Baku, directing harsh criticism of Armenia. He wrote on Twitter that his country would support Azerbaijan by all means, a position that threatens the course of the peace calls that follow from various countries around the world.

On their part, officials in the separatist region announced the killing of 28 more of the region's forces, which raised the total toll of the confrontations to 59 dead, in addition to hundreds of injuries.

The officials accused Azerbaijan of launching an air attack and using heavy artillery in the bombing. They said that they had regained control of some lands that the region had lost yesterday, but Azerbaijan confirmed, on the other hand, that it had taken control of more lands, and said that the Armenian forces bombed the town of Tartar and that Baku would take "appropriate measures" to respond to this.

Politically, the Armenian Parliament this morning, condemned what it described as a "comprehensive military attack" from Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh and said that Turkey's intervention in the crisis threatens to destabilize the region. Yerevan said that it would not submit a request to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for military assistance in its clashes with Azerbaijan. The Collective Security Treaty Organization includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

On the other hand, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, announced a partial military mobilization within the framework of a state of emergency and martial law, which came into effect as of yesterday night. He said that his country launched a "counter operation" in response to the Armenian "aggression", using artillery shelling, armor and air strikes on the territory it had lost since the fall of the Soviet Union.