Karabakh conflict: Armenia faces ‘decisive moment’ as Azerbaijan claims strategic territory
- Azerbaijan claims capture of ‘new footholds’; Armenia’s leader calls on nation to unite
- Fighting threatens to draw in powerful players like Russia and Turkey
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces engaged in fierce clashes on Saturday as fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region intensified, with Armenia reporting heavy losses and its leader saying it was facing a historic threat.
Yerevan’s defence ministry said separatist forces in Karabakh had repelled a massive attack by Azerbaijan, seven days after fighting erupted again in the decades-old dispute over the ethnic-Armenian breakaway province.
Armenia also announced the deaths of 51 more separatist fighters, taking the number of fatalities on both sides above 240.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry meanwhile said its forces had “captured new footholds” and President Ilham Aliyev claimed that his forces took the village of Madagiz, a strategic hamlet within firing range of an important northern road.
In an address to the nation on Saturday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on Armenians to unite.
“We are facing possibly the most decisive moment in our millennia-old history,” Pashinyan said.