Clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan deepen; both sides declare martial law

Clashes erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Sunday over the volatile Nagorno-Karabakh region, reigniting concern about instability in the South Caucasus, a corridor for pipelines transporting oil and gas to world markets.

At least 23 people -– civilians and military -- have died in the heavy fighting.

Both sides, which fought a war in the 1990s, reported fatalities. Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region that is inside Azerbaijan but is run by ethnic Armenians, declared martial law and mobilised their male populations.

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Following this, Azerbaijan’s parliament also approved the introduction of martial law across the country and imposed curfews on Sunday.

Also, the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh said that 16 of its servicemen were killed and more than 100 wounded in clashes with Azerbaijan’s forces.

The office of Azerbaijan's prosecutor general said an Azerbaijani family of five were killed as Armenian separatist forces shelled Azerbaijan's village of Gashalty.

Tensions flared up between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Sunday over clashes in which Yerevan said Azeri forces shelled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, and Baku accused Armenian forces of targetting Azeri military and civilian positions.

Both sides have accused each other of starting the hostilities.

The worst clashes since 2016 have raised the spectre of a fresh large-scale war between arch enemies Azerbaijan and Armenia that have been locked for decades in a territorial dispute over Nagorny Karabakh.

To this end, world leaders urged both sides to call off the warring situation and resort to peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed clashes over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in a phone call on Sunday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

It said the conversation noted that it was important not to allow further escalation of the conflict and it was necessary to halt all military action.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has mediated between former Soviet republics Armenia and Azerbaijan, spoke by phone to the Armenian, Azeri and Turkish foreign ministers.

Turkey said Armenia must immediately cease what it said was hostility towards Azerbaijan that will “throw the region into fire”, and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that Ankara would continue to show solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Erdogan urged the Armenian people to “take hold of their future against their leadership that is dragging them to catastrophe and those using it like puppets”.

France also urged the sides to end hostilities and immediately restart dialogue. The pope appealed to Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve their differences through negotiations, saying he was praying for peace.

The two countries have long been at odds over Azerbaijan’s breakaway, mainly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh which declared independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Though a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia frequently accuse each other of attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the separate Azeri-Armenian frontier.

In July, heavy clashes along the two countries' shared border -- hundreds of kilometres from Karabakh -- claimed the lives of at least 17 soldiers from both sides.

Raising the stakes, Azerbaijan at the time threatened to strike Armenia's atomic power station if Yerevan attacked strategic facilities.

During the worst recent clashes in April 2016, around 110 people were killed.

On Sunday morning, Azerbaijan started "active bombing" along Karabakh's frontline including civilian targets and in the main city Stepanakert, Karabakh's presidency said.

The rebel defence ministry claimed its troops shot down two Azerbaijani helicopters and three drones. The claims were denied by the defence ministry in Baku which said its forces were responding to an Armenian offensive.

(with inputs from agencies)