Explained: Reason behind latest flare-up between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh

Meanwhile, Karabakh’s rights ombudsman in a social media post, on Tuesday, claimed that more than 7,000 people from 16 villages in the Nagorno-Karabakh region had been evacuated after Azerbaijan launched a military operation, Al Jazeera reported.

Karabakh separatist groups claimed that the latest military action by Azerbaijan claimed 27 lives, including two civilians and over 200 were injured, according to reports.

Nagorno-Karabakh, home to around 1,20,000 people, is an area in Azerbaijan predominantly inhabited by ethnic Armenians.

On Tuesday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan contacted world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He informed them about Azerbaijani forces allegedly attempting to enter Armenian territory. Pashinyan's office stated that he called for an “adequate reaction of the international community” to address what Armenia sees as aggression against its sovereign land by Azerbaijan.

Yerevan, which had engaged in occasional peace talks with Azerbaijan, including discussions about the future of Karabakh, strongly criticized Baku for what it termed “full-scale aggression” against the people of Karabakh. It also accused Azerbaijan of shelling towns and villages in the region.

Tensions escalated in the region last time in December 2022 when Azerbaijan blocked the road, called the Lachin Corridor, connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

The Russian peacekeepers were supposed to guarantee that the Lachin Corridor stayed accessible. However, since December, it has mostly been closed because Azerbaijan claimed that Armenians were using it to smuggle weapons and exploit resources illegally – a claim that Armenia has denied. This led to significant food shortages in Nagorno-Karabakh and accusations from Armenia that Azerbaijan was trying to cause genocide by starvation.

During the blockade, there were reports of Azerbaijani troops increasing their presence, though Baku denied this. After months of disagreement and talks, the International Committee of the Red Cross managed to send around 20 tonnes of flour to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia this week, along with medical supplies through a different route from Azerbaijan-controlled territory.

On Tuesday, Azerbaijan ordered “illegal Armenian military formations” to hand over arms and dissolve their “illegal regime”, according to the BBC report.

Meanwhile, ethnic Armenians in the Karabakh region have appealed for a ceasefire and the start of peace talks.

The dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh goes back to the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that time, Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence, hoping to join Armenia. This declaration led to a war that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. A ceasefire in 1994 left Armenia in control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven nearby districts.

In 2020, a second war broke out, resulting in thousands of casualties and tens of thousands of people being displaced once again. This time, Azerbaijan, with the help of Turkish and Israeli attack drones, managed to recapture much of the territory and the surrounding areas.

Keeping the transport routes open, especially the Lachin Corridor, was heavily dependent on the presence of Russian peacekeepers. However, Russia has been preoccupied with its invasion of Ukraine, and the Armenian prime minister recently stated that Russia seemed to be withdrawing from the region without much notice.

Moscow has been a key player in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the past. Currently, with the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia's ability to exert military influence in the region has been limited. This situation has given Azerbaijan an opportunity to see if Russia can still assert its control over smaller neighbouring countries. Notably, Russian troops did not intervene when tensions escalated in January, according to reports.

Russia is working to maintain its influence in the region, which is crucial due to the presence of oil and gas pipelines. This is especially important as Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan, has become more active in the area.

On Wednesday, September 20, Moscow issued a call for both sides in the conflict to halt the violence and hostilities and return to adhering to the ceasefire agreement of 2020. Russia's foreign ministry emphasised the need to “stop the bloodshed” and prevent harm to civilians in a statement shared on its Telegram messaging platform.