Secretary of State Antony Blinken known as the assault on Nagorno-Karabakh “unacceptable”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has known as for “an immediate end to hostilities” by Azerbaijan towards the ethnic-Armenian province of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azeri operation has been condemned by the EU, US, and Russia.
“Azerbaijan’s unacceptable military actions risk worsening the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Blinken stated in a press release on X (previously Twitter) on Tuesday. “We call for an immediate end to hostilities and for direct dialogue.”
Earlier on Tuesday, an nameless US official advised Reuters that Blinken would maintain talks with all sides in a bid to end the “egregious” outbreak of violence within the province.
Azerbaijan launched what it known as “counter-terrorism measures” towards the ethnically-Armenian province of Nagorno-Karabakh earlier on Tuesday. Baku claims that it’s focusing on a buildup of the Armenian military within the province, whereas Yerevan denies deploying models to Nagorno-Karabakh and has accused Azerbaijan of making an attempt to perform the “ethnic cleansing” of the Armenian enclave.
The Azeri operation has been condemned by the US, EU, and Russia, amongst different powers. Russia brokered a ceasefire between Baku and Yerevan when each side fought over Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, and maintains a contingent of peacekeepers within the province. Azerbaijan stated that it knowledgeable Russia earlier than launching its military operation, however Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Tuesday that this warning got here simply “minutes before military action began.”
The US will not be a proper ally of both Armenia or Azerbaijan, however has offered weapons to Baku since 2002, in trade for entry to the nation as a launchpad for deploying troops to Afghanistan. These arms gross sales are a bone of rivalry for the sizable Armenian diaspora within the US, which authorities in Yerevan say numbers up to two million folks.
Two of the US’ main NATO allies – France and Germany – have issued condemnations of Azerbaijan’s actions, with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna calling the operation “illegal, unjustifiable, [and] unacceptable.”
One NATO member, Türkiye, has come out in assist of Azerbaijan. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that Azerbaijan “was forced to take measures it deems necessary on its sovereign territory.”
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In the Armenian capital of Yerevan, protesters clashed with police outdoors authorities buildings. Opposition politicians and activists accuse Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of abandoning Nagorno-Karabakh when he stated he would acknowledge Azeri sovereignty over the province earlier this summer season.
Azerbaijan has vowed to sustain the bombardment of Nagorno-Karabakh till Armenian-backed authorities there give up and dissolve their authorities.
