INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The outbreak of fresh hostilities between South Caucasus foes Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh marks
majority-Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh nearly three years after fighting a brutal war with Yerevan over the region.Video footage
the region.The outbreak of fighting came as relations between Armenia and Russia, which is supposed to act as a security guarantor, appeared
Russia and the United Nations to take action following the escalation."First of all, Russia must take steps and, secondly, we expect the UN
Security Council to also take steps," Pashinyan, whose country is in a Moscow-led military alliance, said in televised comments.The Kremlin
said it was concerned over the sharp escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh."The main thing is to prevent human casualties
We see that there are these kinds of victims
And the main thing is to convince Yerevan and Baku to come to the negotiating table," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.Fears
of a fresh war have been building in recent months, with Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of a troop build-up and decrying a blockade of its only
land link to Nagorno-Karabakh.According to Baku, regional power brokers Russia and Turkey, which oversee a fragile peacekeeping mission in
Nagorno-Karabakh, had been informed about Azerbaijan's military activities in Karabakh in advance.While Russia said it was in contact with
and a return to a peaceful settlement."The latest escalation comes nearly three years after a brief but brutal war between Armenia and
Azerbaijan over the mountainous region that ended in a ceasefire and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers.The ex-Soviet Caucasus rivals
have been locked in a decades-long dispute over Karabakh with large-scale hostilities breaking out in the 1990s and in 2020.Azerbaijan
justified the mission, citing "systematic" shelling by Armenian-backed forces and accusing them of carrying out "reconnaissance activities"
and fortifying defensive positions.Russia appears to be growing more frustrated as Armenia strengthens its ties with the United States and
jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, a sensitive issue for Moscow given the court's indictment of Russian President Vladimir
statement on Telegram that appeared to describe Pashinyan as someone who "wanted to engage with NATO."Armenia's foreign ministry condemned
Azerbaijani "aggression" against Karabakh.At least five people have been killed and more than 80 others injured, according to local
officials in Nagorno-Karabakh."On Sept
19, Azerbaijan unleashed another large-scale aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, aiming to complete its policy of ethnic
2020 to "take clear and unequivocal steps to stop Azerbaijan's aggression."Some Azerbaijani politicians suggested that Moscow should
withdraw from the region altogether."Both the armed forces in Karabakh and the Russian 'peacekeepers' should leave Karabakh," Ali Karimli,
the head of the opposition Popular Front party, said in a comment on Facebook.Former Armenian lawmaker Arman Abovyan told The Moscow Times
