Azerbaijan Says Military Operation Underway in Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan said on Tuesday that it had launched a military operation against an Armenian enclave inside its territory, raising fears of a new armed conflict in a fragile region in which the interests of Russia, Turkey and Western countries are increasingly colliding.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces had launched “local anti-terrorist” operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh area aiming to “disarm and secure the withdrawal of Armenia’s armed formations” from its territory. The country’s foreign ministry issued what appeared to be an ultimatum, declaring that only the “dissolution” of the unrecognized pro-Armenian government in the region would “achieve peace and stability.”

The defense ministry also said that it had been using high-precision weapons so far to target what it said were Armenian firing points and other military facilities in the area.

Unverified video footage from the region showed explosions and the buzzing sound of a drone, a weapon that Azerbaijan used to devastating effect when it last fought, and defeated, Armenia in a 44-day war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.