While details of the latest deadly escalation are emerging, it is worth mentioning that satellite imagery available to independent international security analysts has shown that in the last six months the Azeri military have been amassing military hardware and conducting military drills along the Agdam, Fizuli and Djabrayil regions controlled by the Nagorno Karabakh, in the southern and south-eastern parts of the NK. Today’s reports from Azerbaijan and Armenia confirmed that these regions were seeing the heaviest fighting. This implies premeditation on behalf of Azeri forces, contrary to the Azeri official statements claiming that the assault on 2 April was a simple response to the Armenian alleged shootings.
The dangerous aspect to this is that, once begun, any military operations in this conflict zone can easily escalate and get out of control. An unpredictable conflict environment combines with a tough macho political culture where it is seen as a sign of weakness to compromise. And, as the Prussian general Helmuth von Moltke said, “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.”
According to Markedonov, breaking of a fragile status quo in that “hot line” is going to have negative implications for Russia, as first and foremost, it’ll question perspective for Eurasian integration projects, on account of absence of a consensus of member countries in providing military-political support to Armenia, secondly, it’ll sharply contradict interests of Moscow and Baku, up to possibility of repeating “Georgian scenario,” and thirdly, weakening of Russian positions will inevitably raise the issue of “internationalization” of peaceful settlement process, in case of which Russia’s impact will noticeably decrease.
Foreign Ministry of Armenia will jointly work with the Foreign Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh on signing a military cooperation agreement. President Serzh Sargsyan announced this during the National Security Council session. “It is necessary to have the text of the agreement, conduct relevant discussions and send it to the National Assembly”, the President noted.
Due to timely and professional actions of Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army it was possible to take the situation under control and not only take the situation under control, but also inflict considerable losses on the enemy.
“I’m convinced that people with black masks applaud Aliyev now, as he’s taking desperate risky steps, to clean the South Caucasus from Christian, Western culture. Here, whether consciously or unconscious, he acts out of interests of ISIS or likewise organizations.”
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s Defense Army publishes photos evidencing the eliminated soldiers of Azerbaijani Armed Forces. 168.am was informed about the aforementioned from the press service of NKR Defense Army.
The situation along the entire contact line of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani frontier troops remains extremely tense. Defense Army frontier troops continue to successfully lead protective fights and cause the rival heavy damages. Overall, Azerbaijani Armed Forces suffered more than 200 losses during the military actions of April 1, the night of April 2 and today.
“I call on the parties to stop the fighting immediately and respect strictly the cease-fire regime. This conflict may not have a military solution. The parties should show a political will and return to negotiations within Minsk group. The co-chairs have my complete support in this,” German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs said.
“We expect both sides to respect strictly the ceasefire, refrain from the use of force and resume efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
