United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to end the border conflict and engage in dialogue over the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region immediately.
He lamented the deaths of civilians in the clashes on Sunday and said “he would soon speak by telephone with top leaders of the two countries”.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold bilateral talks to end the conflict.
Earlier, the two armies fired heavy shells at each other in the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Sunday morning. This situation has arisen after the international mediators did not take any initiative in resolving the border tensions for the last few months.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of “firing without provocation”. Earlier, several people were killed in a border clash between the two countries in July.
In late 1980, war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The conflict culminated in the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.
Until the ceasefire was established between the two sides in 1994, 30,000 people lost lives in the conflict. Although the Nagorno-Karabakh is in Azerbaijan, it is controlled by people of Armenian descent under the auspices of the Yerevan government.❐
