Category Archives: Armenia

Azerbaijan claims to have captured key town in Nagorno-Karabakh

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President Aliyev says country’s forces have taken Shusha, despite Armenian denials

Azerbaijan has said it has recaptured the symbolic town of Shusha, a claim denied by Armenian officials as fighting in the bloody six-week-old battle over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory appeared to reach an apex.

“[This day] will become a great day in the history of Azerbaijan,” said Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, in a televised address. His announcement on Sunday was greeted with celebrations on the streets of Baku as Azerbaijanis gathered to wave flags and sing.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: US-brokered ceasefire agreed amid fresh fighting

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Cessation of hostilities due to start on Monday amid accusations on both sides that peaceful settlement is being blocked

A humanitarian ceasefire will take effect on Monday morning in the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The announcement came in a joint statement on Sunday from the US State Department and the two governments. It comes after US secretary of state Mike Pompeo met the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington on Friday, and a meeting of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, formed to mediate the conflict and led by France, Russia and the US.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia and Azerbaijan announce new truce plan

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Warring parties say ceasefire over disputed territory to take effect from midnight local time

Armenia and Azerbaijan have announced a new attempt to establish a ceasefire in their conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh starting from midnight local time (8pm GMT).

It comes a week after a Russia-brokered truce frayed immediately after it took force. The two sides trade blame for breaching that deal. On Saturday, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of striking its second-largest city with a ballistic missile that killed at least 13 civilians and wounded 50 others.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan says 12 civilians killed by shelling in Ganja

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Rescuers pull men, women and children out of rows of houses turned to rubble in latest escalation of conflict

Azerbaijan has said at least 12 people have died after shelling levelled a row of homes in the city of Ganja, with 40 more wounded in a sharp escalation of the conflict with Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azeri prosecutor general’s office said that two shells hit apartment buildings in the country’s second largest city. There has been no official reaction from Armenia as yet.

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Trench warfare, drones and cowering civilians: on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh

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The battle over Nagorno-Karabakh, waged on and off for a century, has flared anew and civilians once again suffer the consequences

Over the road from the 8-metre-deep crater left by a medium-range missile, Sergei Hovhnnesyan and three of his neighbours are hunkering down in the basement storage space of their local grocery shop in Stepanakert, a mountain town in the heart of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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Fresh Azerbaijani shelling shatters peace after fragile ceasefire agreed

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Any hope for a truce in the long-running conflict in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh was short-lived

The streets of Stepanakert were quiet as a ceasefire went into effect on Saturday afternoon, but the local population’s ears were still ringing from shelling and drone strikes that have decimated this highland town over the past 13 days.

The peace – and any hope of a lasting truce – was short-lived. Air-raid sirens in Artsakh, a de facto Armenian republic inside Azerbaijan’s borders, were screaming again before nightfall. Residents who have refused to flee the assault retreated back into bomb shelters and basements, bracing for another sleepless night.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to ceasefire

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Countries to halt fighting at 12pm on Saturday to exchange prisoners and casualties

Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to a ceasefire starting on Saturday to exchange prisoners and bodies of those killed in the conflict between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said.

The talks between the two sides were held in Moscow and were the first diplomatic contact between the enemies since fighting over the breakaway enclave erupted on 27 September, killing hundreds of people. The ceasefire begins at 12pm local time (0800GMT).

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Russia offers to host Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire talks

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Putin proposes halt in fighting to exchange prisoners and collect soldiers’ bodies, says Kremlin

Russia has moved to stop the worst escalation of fighting in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh in more than a quarter-century by offering to host ceasefire talks on Friday.

Late on Thursday, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, issued a statement calling for a break in the fighting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that has raged for nearly two weeks over the region.

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Footage shows shelling in Azerbaijani city of Ganja – video

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Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of shelling several civilian areas, including its second city, Ganja, as fighting grows between the two countries over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Meanwhile, separatist forces in the enclave have accused Azerbaijan of targeting its capital, Stepanakert. Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted on 27 September. Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian enclave which broke away from Azerbaijan in the 1990s

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Azerbaijan and Armenia accuse each other of shelling cities

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Fear of mass civilian casualties as Nagorno-Karabakh conflict escalates

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have accused each other of shelling cities in a dangerous escalation of the eight-day war in the south Caucasus that it is feared could lead to mass civilian casualties.

Separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh – an ethnic Armenian enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan in the 1990s – have reported continuous heavy artillery fire on their capital, Stepanakert, since Friday. It reported an unspecified number of civilian casualties and said eight soldiers had been injured.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of rocket attack

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At least one person killed in Ganja incident, as former Soviet republics move closer to war

Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh has escalated dramatically after Baku accused Armenian forces of firing rockets at Ganja, which lies outside the contested territory.

At least one civilian was killed and four more injured in the attack on Sunday on Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second largest city, 100km (60 miles) north of the Karabakh capital, Stepanakert.

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Syrian recruit describes role of foreign fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh

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Deployment of 1,000 Syrians to Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict shows Ankara’s rise in region

A Syrian fighter sent into combat with Azerbaijani forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh has detailed the extent of foreign involvement in the new conflict with Armenia that, after six days of clashes, is taking on a regional dimension.

The deployment of 1,000 Syrian fighters working for a private Turkish security firm, as well as Ankara’s outspoken support for Azerbaijan in the worst fighting between the two neighbours since 1994, confirms Turkey’s rise as a regional power – and threatens to upset the fragile status quo in the Caucasus, long seen as Russia’s domain.

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Russia says it and Turkey urge end to hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh

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Russia says two countries’ foreign ministers have found common ground after French journalists injured during shelling

Russia and Turkey’s foreign ministers have agreed to the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a Russian statement, opening the door to a possible end to fighting in the breakaway region.

The potential breakthrough was at odds with an earlier statement by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who hours earlier had called for a full Armenian withdrawal from the area – which is legally Azerbaijani territory but administered by ethnic Armenians – and condemned international efforts to resolve the conflict.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: at least three Syrian fighters killed

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Syrians on the ground are believed to be contractors working for Turkish security companies

At least three Syrian opposition fighters have been killed in skirmishes in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Guardian has learned, confirming earlier reports of foreign involvement in the battle between Armenian and Azerbaijan over the territory and increasing fears it may spiral into a wider regional conflict.

As fierce combat between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces stretched into a fourth day, the presence of Syrians on the ground – believed to be contractors working for Turkish security companies – signalled a new frontier for Ankara’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: UN urges ceasefire as Azerbaijan and Armenia dismiss talks

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Armenian prime minister says he regards aggression by Azerbaijan as an ‘existential threat’

The UN security council has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately halt the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and urgently resume talks without preconditions as the conflict threatened to escalate beyond the region.

On Tuesday night, the UN’s most powerful body strongly condemned the use of force and backed secretary general Antonio Guterres’ call to stop the fighting, deescalate tensions, and resume talks “without delay”.

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UN to hold emergency talks on Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict

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Meeting on Tuesday follows two days of fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh

Explainer: why is there fighting and what are the implications?

The UN security council will hold emergency talks behind closed doors on the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where fighting continued overnight on Monday.

The meeting will be held at 5.00pm ET (2100 GMT) on Tuesday. Belgium formally requested the session, after France and Germany had led a push for it to be placed on the agenda.

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Armenia and Azerbaijan clash over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region – video report

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Dozens have been killed in clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over a disputed area in the south Caucasus region, with international calls mounting for an immediate ceasefire.

Tensions between the countries have been growing for months over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an enclave legally considered to be part of Azerbaijan, but which has been run by ethnic Armenians since it declared independence in 1991.

Fighting was reported overnight on 27 September and throughout the following day, with both sides accusing each other of using heavy artillery, targeting civilians and deploying foreign mercenaries

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Dozens killed as Armenian and Azerbaijani forces clash for second day

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Fighting prompts international calls for immediate ceasefire in dispute over breakaway region

Dozens of soldiers have been killed in the second day of clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over a disputed south Caucasus region, with international calls mounting for an immediate ceasefire.

Civilians have also been killed and are said to be among the hundreds wounded in the fiercest clashes since 2016 in an area that provides crucial transit routes for gas and oil to the international market.

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Why are Armenia and Azerbaijan fighting and what are the implications?

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Tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh region have caused one of Europe’s ‘frozen conflicts’ to erupt

Early on Sunday, Armenia announced it was declaring martial law, mobilising its army and ordering civilians to shelter. It claimed its neighbour Azerbaijan had launched a military operation inside a disputed region called Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said it attacked only in response to Armenian shelling.

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Armenia imposes martial law after clashes with Azerbaijan

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Mobilisation follows alleged Azerbaijani attack on disputed region Nagorno-Karabakh

Armenia has declared martial law and ordered the total mobilisation of its military after claiming to have destroyed several Azerbaijani aircraft and tanks in clashes over a disputed region on Sunday.

Armenia said Azerbaijan had carried out an air and artillery attack on the disputed region, Nagorno-Karabakh, but Azerbaijan said it had responded to Armenian shelling.

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