Armenia-Azerbaijan clashes: Live news
Al Jazeera’s live coverage of the latest military escalation in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
![The escalation is the heaviest between the two arch-foes in recent years [Armenian Defense Ministry via AP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AP_20271311650326-1.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
- Heavy fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces broke out in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region on Sunday.
- Armenia and Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh declared martial law, while Azerbaijan ordered its military to mobilise.
- Both sides blamed each other for the worst escalation since 2016, amid reports of casualties.
Here are the latest updates:
14:20 GMT – Armenian PM warns against any Turkish involvement
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has called on the international community to ensure that Turkey does not involve itself in Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan.
Turkey, an Azeri ally, had earlier sharply criticised Armenia after clashes between Armenian and Azeri forces broke out in the morning, saying Yerevan was an obstacle to peace and vowing to continue its support for Baku.
Pashinyan said Turkey’s behaviour could have destructive consequences for the South Caucasus and neighbouring regions.
13:59 GMT – Azerbaijan introduces martial law and curfew in several regions
Azerbaijan’s parliament has introduced martial law and curfew in several regions after clashes over the Nagorno-Karabakh province.
13:57 GMT – Azerbaijan: Armenia should lay down its arms
Azerbaijan has called on Armenia to lay down its arms and cease its border violations.
If Armenian forces surrender, the prisoners of war and civilian hostages will be treated in line with the Geneva Convention and other international legal norms, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry pledged in a statement.
The statement added that if Armenian forces continue their resistance, all their armed forces will be neutralized.
13:50 GMT – Armenia: woman and child killed
Armenia has said a woman and a child were killed in the disputed separatist region by shelling from Azerbaijani forces and Azerbaijan’s president has said his military has suffered losses.
Armenia also claimed that two Azerbaijani helicopters were shot down and three Azerbaijani tanks were hit by artillery, but Azerbaijan’s defense ministry has rejected that claim.
13:40 GMT – Armenian FM: ‘Aggression is pre-planned’ with ‘massive support of Turkey’
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan told Al Jazeera that the “aggression is pre-planned, not just by Azerbaijan but by the massive support of Turkey, which has its military presence.
“It has been showing its unilateral aggressive approach towards Armenia. This is very disturbing. It’s a massive escalation,” Mnatsakanyan said.
While Azerbaijan maintains that Armenia was the first to attack at 6am, Mnatsakanyan said: “We totally reject this absolute misinformation… we have no intention of doing anything which would bring to an escalation.”
13:15 GMT – Azerbaijan has ‘declared war’ on Armenian people: Armenia PM
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that arch-foe Azerbaijan has declared war on his people.
Azerbaijan’s “authoritarian regime has once again declared war on the Armenian people,” Pashinyan said in a televised statement, adding, “we are on the brink of a full-scale war in the South Caucasus, which might have unpredictable consequences”.
12:55 GMT – Armenia-Azerbaijan clashes: How the world reacted
The international community has reacted to the escalation of tensions and heavy fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Read more here.
12:40 GMT – Russia calls for ceasefire and talks
Russia called on the parties to the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to immediately stop hostilities and begin negotiations.
“According to the available information, the situation in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has sharply deteriorated,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
“We call on the parties to immediately cease fire and begin negotiations in order to stabilise the situation,” it added.
12:20 GMT – Nagorno-Karabakh dispute: Armenia, Azerbaijan standoff explained
The contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, a mountainous and heavily-forested patch of land, is at the heart of a decades-long armed standoff between neighbours Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Under international law, Nagorno-Karabakh is recognised as part of Azerbaijan. But the ethnic Armenians who make up the vast majority of the population reject Azerbaijani rule. They have been running their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Azerbaijan’s forces were pushed out in a war in the 1990s.
Read more here.
12:00 GMT – Germany calls for ‘immediate’ end to Karabakh fighting
Germany called for an “immediate” halt to the fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani separatists over the Nagorny Karabakh region, saying the conflict can only be resolved through dialogue.
“I call on both parties to the conflict to immediately stop all hostilities, especially the shelling of villages and towns,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement, voicing “alarm” at reports of civilian casualties.
He urged a return to talks to resolve the dispute over the breakaway region, saying that the so-called Minsk Group “stood ready” to help.
German Foreign Minister Maas urges a return to talks to resolve the dispute over the breakaway region [File: Reuters]11:40 GMT – Official: Azerbaijan seeks to take all occupied territories
A spokesman for the Azerbaijan presidency told Al Jazeera his country’s goal is to retake all Azerbaijani territory controlled by Armenian forces.
Hikmet Haciyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan and the head of foreign policy department, added that Armenia must withdraw from the territory it has occupied for the conflict to end.
“Thirty years, we are suffering from Armenia’s occupation and aggression, and our civilians are becoming targets of the Armenian armed forces,” Haciyev said from Baku.
“We have one million ethnically cleansed Azerbaijanis from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Therefore, Azerbaijan armed forces are taking counter actions and counter attacks to repel Armenia’s provocations and further acts of aggression against Azerbaijan.”
11:15 GMT – Azerbaijan claims captured six Armenian-held villages
Azerbaijan said it had captured six of its Armenian-controlled villages in heavy fighting along the frontline of the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
“We have liberated six villages – five in Fizuli district and one in Jebrail district,” a defence ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency.
10:50 GMT – Azerbaijan says no need for military mobilisation over Nagorno-Karabakh
Azerbaijan’s army said there was no need for total military mobilisation due to a flare up in tensions with Armenia over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, since its army is fully staffed.
Earlier, both Armenia and authorities Nagorno-Karabakh declared martial law and military mobilisation due to clashes with Azerbaijan.
10:30 GMT – France calls on sides to end hostilities
France called on Yerevan and Baku to end hostilities and immediately restart dialogue after Armenia declared martial law and mobilised its male population following clashes with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“France is extremely concerned by the confrontation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes bon der Muhll said in a statement.
Along with the United States and Russia, France is co-president of the Minsk group, which mediates between both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
10:11 GMT – EU calls for ‘immediate return to negotiations’
European Council president Charles Michel has called for a halt to fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces and an “immediate return to negotiations, without preconditions”.
“Military action must stop, as a matter of urgency, to prevent a further escalation,” Michel tweeted.
09:55 GMT – Azerbaijan restricts internet traffic
Azerbaijan’s transport ministry says it has “put restrictions on internet traffic” amid the ongoing military escalation with Armenian forces.
The ministry said the measure was taken in order to prevent “Armenian provocations” following the clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh.
09:28 GMT – Turkey condemns Armenian ‘attacks’
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara “strongly condemns the attack by Armenia against Azerbaijan”.
“Armenia violated the ceasefire by attacking civilian locations,” he posted on Twitter. “Turkey stands in full solidarity with Azerbaijan and unreservedly supports its right to self-defense.”
09:06 GMT – Harutyunyan: ‘Turkey has mercenaries in Azerbaijan’
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leader Araik Harutyunyan accused the Turkish government of sending mercenaries to Azerbaijan.
“We have information that mercenaries from Turkey and other countries were airlifted to Azerbaijan,” he said.
“The Turkish army is already in Azerbaijan, under the guise of military drills,” he claimed.
08:55 GMT – Aliyev: ‘Our cause is just, we will win’
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has vowed victory over Armenian forces in a televised address to the nation.
Aliyev says “there are losses among the Azerbaijani forces and the civilian population as a result of the Armenian bombardment”.
“Our cause is just and we will win,” Aliyev said, repeating a famous quote from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s address at the outbreak of World War II in Russia. “[The] Azerbaijani army is fighting on its territory,” he added.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gestures as he addresses the nation in Baku, Azerbaijan on Sunday [Azerbaijani Presidential Press Office via AP]08:39 GMT – Pashinyan: ‘Get ready to defend our sacred homeland’
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on his people to defend their “homeland”.
“Get ready to defend our sacred homeland,” he wrote on Facebook, adding “the government has decided to declare martial law and a total mobilisation”.
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government declared martial law[File: Reuters]
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