Armenia, Azerbaijan reject talks as fighting rages
Armenia and Azerbaijan rejected international calls for negotiations and a halt to fighting as fierce clashes over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh spilled over right into a fourth day on Wednesday. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are engaged in the heaviest fighting in years over Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian province that broke from Azerbaijan in the 1990s through the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The long-simmering conflict erupted on Sunday with the two sides trading heavy fire and blaming the other person for the outbreak of violence. Nearly 100 persons are confirmed to have died in the flare-up and both sides are claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on opposing forces.
Azerbaijan hasn't admitted any military deaths but an AFP journalist in the southern Beylagan region saw a large number of women wailing over the coffin of a soldier killed in the clashes, before men with Azerbaijan flags recited prayers at a burial.There's been increasing international pressure for a ceasefire, as fears grow that the conflict could escalate right into a devastating all-out war and attract regional powers like Turkey and Russia.
Defence officials in Yerevan on Wednesday accused Turkish jets of performing "provocative flights" along their shared border and of violating Armenia airspace, a day after Yerevan said a Turkish jet had downed among its warplanes. Moscow, that includes a military pact with Armenia but also good ties with Azerbaijan, has repeatedly needed a finish to the fighting and wanted to help with negotiations. But Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Wednesday that talks with Azerbaijan weren't yet up for grabs.
"It isn't very appropriate to talk about a summit between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia at the same time of intensive hostilities," Mr Pashinyan said. "The right atmosphere and conditions are necessary for negotiations." He said that Yerevan "at this stage" is not likely to require intervention in the conflict by a Russia-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization that comprises several former Soviet republics including Armenia.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also rejected negotiations during an interview with Russian TV on Tuesday. "The Armenian prime minister publicly declares that Karabakh is Armenia, period. In this instance, what sort of negotiation process can we discuss?"
There's been no let-up in the fighting because the weekend, with both sides reporting new clashes on Wednesday. Officials in both countries have made claims of huge losses for the other side, but these have not been possible to verify.
Azerbaijan has released no information on its military casualties, while the Armenian side has registered 81 deaths. A complete of 17 civilians have been reported dead.
Azerbaijan's defence ministry said Wednesday that "intense fighting was continuing", claiming that its forces have killed 2,300 Karabakh separatist troops since hostilities broke out.The ministry said its troops had "destroyed 130 tanks, 200 artillery units, 25 anti-aircraft units, five ammunition depots, 50 anti-tank units, 55 military vehicles".
It said Karabakh's separatist forces had "shelled metropolis of Terter, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure."Karabakh's defense ministry, for its part, said Azerbaijani forces "continued artillery shelling" of separatist positions along the frontline on Wednesday morning.
Both sides have accused each other of targeting civilian areas, including in areas from Karabakh. Yerevan is claiming that Turkey, a longstanding ally of Azerbaijan, offers direct military support, including mercenaries, for Baku.It said on Tuesday a Turkish F-16 flying in support of Baku's forces had downed an Armenian SU-25 warplane, but Ankara and Baku denied the claim.
"We are definitely very near seeing a large-scale war, potentially on a regional scale," Ms Olesya Vartanyan of the International Crisis Group told AFP."If we see mass civilian casualties... that'll be an extremely strong pretext for just about any regional power - no matter Russia or Turkey - to intervene," she said.
Karabakh's declaration of independence from Azerbaijan sparked a war in the first 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives, but it is still not recognized as independent by any country, including Armenia.Armenia and Karabakh declared martial law and military mobilization Sunday, while Azerbaijan imposed military rule and a curfew in large cities.
Talks to resolve the conflict have largely stalled since a 1994 ceasefire agreement. France, Russia and america have mediated peace efforts as the "Minsk Group", but the last big push for a peace deal collapsed in 2010 2010.French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday condemned what he called Turkey's "reckless and dangerous" statements backing Baku, saying they "remove any inhibitions from Azerbaijan".
