(Updated with details)
WASHINGTON, September 20 (Reuters) – Washington on Tuesday called on Azerbaijan to end military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, while Baku sent troops to this separatist region populated mainly by Armenians.
Azerbaijan on Tuesday sent ground troops supported by artillery fire to Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijani territory but managed in part by dissident Armenian authorities who consider the region their ancestral homeland.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Tuesday, calling on Baku to de-escalate the situation.
“I spoke today with Azerbaijani President (Ilham) Aliev and urged him to immediately cease military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Antony Blinken announced on social media.
In a report on the call, the US State Department said Ilham Aliyev had “expressed his willingness” to end hostilities and organize a meeting with representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Antony Blinken told Nikol Pashinian that Armenia had the support of Washington.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds for decades over the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, a dispute that has given rise to two wars since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the latest in the fall of 2020 when Baku has launched an offensive to retake part of the territory controlled by separatists supported by Yerevan.
(Reportage Eric Beech, Lidia Kelly et Ronald Popeski ; version
française Camille Raynaud)
2023-09-20 02:27:37
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