This article is part of the year recap series, where we publish that defined the news cycle in Azerbaijan during 2022. It was originally published on 13 September 2022.
On the night of September 13, an armed dispute took place on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border.
The fighting spilled over the Armenian cities of Goris and Jermuk, as well as the village of Sotk, and violated the ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan achieved on November 2020 after the Fall 2020 War in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The countries blamed each other for the clash, which led to causalities on both sides.
In a statement made by the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, the fight started with a large-scale Azerbaijani aggression to the Armenian territory.
Likewise, the head of the International Military Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Defense, Huseyn Mahmudov, said at a briefing for foreign military attachés accredited in Azerbaijan that the Armenian armed forces fired in the directions of Dashkasan, Kalbajar and Lachin.
The Azerbaijani side stated that the military and political leadership of Armenia is fully responsible for the provocation, confrontation and losses. Armenia claims the opposite and blames Azerbaijan for the armed conflict.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting with the UN Security Council earlier today. In addition to the members of the Security Council, the President of the Republic of Armenia Vaaghn Khachaturyan and the Chairman of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan participated in the meeting.
Meanwhile, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev held an operational meeting with the leadership of the Armed Forces of his country to discuss the flare up.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed concern over the incident, in which “he is deeply concerned about the attacks along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, including attacks on population centers and civil infrastructure inside Armenia”.
He said that the conflict cannot be resolved by military means: “We call for an immediate cessation of all military operations.”
President of the Council of the European Union, Charles Michel, also showed concern. He affirmed that there the only alternative for the region is peace and stability, and that he is ready to make efforts to prevent further escalation.
Read more about this topic in these articles:
Baku and Yerevan accuse each other of ceasefire violation, while international community appeals to peace in the border
Amid more causalities and block of TikTok in Azerbaijan, humanitarian ceasefire is proposed
Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict: Images related to war crimes are sent to international organizations
