Escalating hostilities between the South Caucasus countries have fueled fears that full-scale war could break out between the former Soviet nations. Armenia said several towns near the border with Azerbaijan were shelled in the early hours of Tuesday. It said it responded to a “wide-scale provocation” by Azerbaijan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of attacking Armenian cities because it did not want to negotiate on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan populated mainly by Armenians. “The intensity of hostilities has decreased, but attacks on one or two fronts from Azerbaijan continue,” Mr Pashinyan said in a speech to parliament, according to Russian media. He said it followed recent EU-sponsored talks in Brussels with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, which he said revealed Azerbaijan’s intransigent stance. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan said it was attacked by Armenia. It said Armenian forces had engaged in intelligence activities on its border, transported weapons into the area and laid mines. Russia, which has about 2,000 troops deployed to the region as part of an earlier peace deal, moved quickly to broker a ceasefire. Image: The conflict zone, Nagorno-Karabakh, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Photo: AP It follows a decades-long rift between the neighboring countries. Armenia is a landlocked country on the eastern border of Turkey bordering Azerbaijan to the west, while Azerbaijan borders the Caspian Sea on its eastern side. The conflict first began in the 1980s, when both countries were part of the Soviet Union. Armenian forces seized territory near Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan later partially regained in 2020 in six weeks of fighting that killed more than 6,600 people. The conflict ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire and thousands of residents returned to the homes they had left. Both Russia and Europe have called on nations to exercise restraint. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the latest conflict “should be resolved exclusively through political and diplomatic means.” Charles Mischel, president of the European Council, also urged Mr Pasyhinyan to prevent further escalation.
