ISLAMABAD
\nAzerbaijan said on Tuesday its armed forces had launched what it called \u201clocal anti-terrorist activities\u201d in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to restore constitutional order by disarming and forcing the withdrawal of Armenian military formations there.
\nKarabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, has an overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian population and broke from Baku\u2019s control in the early 1990s after a war. Azerbaijan recaptured swathes of land in and around it in a 2020 war.
\nAzerbaijan\u2019s defence ministry spoke in a statement of its intention to \u201cdisarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia\u2019s armed forces from our territories, (and) neutralise their military infrastructure\u201d.
\nIt said it was only targeting legitimate military targets using what it called high-precision weapons and not civilians or civilian infrastructure as part of what it called a drive to \u201crestore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan\u201d.
\nIt said it had informed a Russian peacekeeping force in the area along with a Turkish-Russian monitoring centre which is meant to help ensure a 2020 ceasefire is upheld.
\nArmenia says it does not have any military personnel in Karabakh and that its priorities are purely humanitarian. Much of Karabakh is controlled by Armenian authorities whom Baku has long been pressuring to disband and disarm.
\nRuben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker who was a top official in Karabakh\u2019s Armenian administration until February, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter:
\n\u201cAzerbaijan has initiated a massive artillery attack against Nagorno Karabakh, targeting cities and civilians on a large scale.\u201d
\nReuters could not immediately verify assertions from either side.
\nBaku announced its operation after complaining that six of its citizens had been killed by land mines in two separate incidents, something it blamed on \u201cillegal Armenian armed groups.\u201d
\nThe escalation occurred a day after badly needed food and medicine was delivered to Karabakh along two roads simultaneously, a step that looked like it could help ease mounting tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
\nUntil the last few days, Baku had imposed sweeping restrictions on the Lachin corridor – the only road linking Armenia with Karabakh – and had not allowed in aid on the grounds that the route was purportedly being used for arms smuggling.
\nArmenia had said that Baku\u2019s actions, which is said had caused a humanitarian catastrophe, something Azerbaijan denied, were illegal.
\nArmenia\u2019s foreign ministry had said on Monday that Azerbaijan\u2019s diplomatic stance looked like it was preparing the ground for some kind of military action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Azerbaijan said on Tuesday its armed forces had launched what it called \u201clocal anti-terrorist activities\u201d in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to restore constitutional order by disarming and forcing the withdrawal of Armenian military formations there. Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, has an overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian population and broke from Baku\u2019s control in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-357057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n