Azerbaijan vows to keep fighting – DW – 09/20/2023

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate end to the fighting” in Nagorno-Karabakh, where Azerbaijan has launched a military operation against separatist forces.

“The Secretary-General calls in the strongest terms for an immediate end to the fighting, de-escalation, and stricter observance of the 2020 ceasefire and principles of international humanitarian law,” said Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

France on Tuesday called for the UN Security Council to meet urgently on the crisis, which came just as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual General Assembly.

Azerbaijan said on Wednesday its military operation in Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh continued successfully after the US called on it to halt hostilities and Moscow urged both sides to stop the bloodshed in the disputed region.

The military measures “continue successfully,” with weaponry and military equipment destroyed, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging platform.

Azerbaijan’s operation in Nagorno-Karabakh will end if Armenian separatists “lay down their arms”, President Ilham Aliyev said in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a presidency statement.

Aliyev also told Blinken “that anti-terrorist measures will be stopped if (Karabakh forces) lay down their arms”, the statement said.

After months of rising tensions in the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan on Tuesday sent troops backed by artillery strikes into the region in an attempt to bring the breakaway region to heel.

The mountainous Karabakh is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, but part of it is run by separatist Armenian authorities who say it is their ancestral homeland.