The Azerbaijani army has unilaterally launched a “counter-terrorist operation” on the territory of the unrecognized Armenian Republic of Artsakh.
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan announced that local anti-terrorist actions would be carried out to restore the constitutional order.
The formal reason given was the explosion of two pieces of equipment by mines in the “gray zone”: the Azerbaijanis claim that civilians were killed.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry called Azerbaijan’s military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh “large-scale aggression”.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry calls on the UN Security Council and Russian peacekeepers to take measures to stop Azerbaijan’s hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The Azerbaijani side did not warn Russian peacekeepers in advance about today’s anti-terrorist operation in Nagorno-Karabakh” - Maria Zakharova
"The information was communicated to the Russian contingent a few minutes before the start of hostilities,” said a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.
The Armenian Apostolic Church called Azerbaijan’s actions in Nagorno-Karabakh genocide and called on international organizations to adequately respond to Baku.
The Azerbaijani army launched a major attack in the directions of Askeran, Agdere, Khojaly, and Khojavend with the support of armored units
The Azerbaijani army shells the outskirts of Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh with artillery. The air raid warning sounds in the city.
Artsakh Defense Forces: “The Azerbaijani Armed Forces are trying to advance into depth of Artsakh. The Defense Forces continue to resist Azerbaijan’s offensive along the entire line of contact.”
“Azerbaijan launched a ground operation to ethnically cleanse the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia did not give anyone a mandate to carry out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh” - Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan
Update: Yerevan has reportedly announced it will not go to war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Instead they seem to be more worried about internal dissent. Seems they would rather use their forces to crush any possible internal uprising in Armenia triggered by popular outrage over this betrayal.
The betrayal was entirely telegraphed and pretty much exactly what is happening now was predicted by most serious observers of the conflict in this region.
Whaaat who could have possibly predicted such an outcome from a West-backed government that came to power after a colour revolution?! No way!
I think this illustrates the point:
I’ve not seen this before, thanks!