At least 18 Armenian and 12 Azerbaijani troops were killed in fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan Friday night and Saturday morning, CNN reports. This recent violence marks the deadliest and most brutal confrontation between the two hostile countries since 1994, when Armenia and Azerbaijan were engaged in a full-scale war. Since the end of the war, Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region in Azerbaijan with a large Armenian population, has always been a volatile region, but this was the largest spark of violence since a 1994 ceasefire was put in place between the two sides.
Depending on which news sources you look at, you will certainly see some conflicting stories about what really happened. According to Azerbaijan, their forces were forced counter-attack Armenian troops after they had come under fire from Armenian “large-caliber artillery and grenade launchers” and claiming that Armenia was shelling villages near the front-line with high civilian populations. Armenia then shot down an Mi-24 helicopter, took out a military tank, and killed 12 of their soldiers as well as killing and injuring multiple civilians. The Azerbaijani government quickly recognized the fallen servicemen as martyrs. However, they went on to say that Azerbaijan had killed and injured “over 100 enemy soldiers,” and that they had taken control of a strategic village and territory in Nagorno-Karabakh, citing the fight as an Azerbaijani victory.
Armenia, however, paints a different story. They say that Azerbaijan conducted a provocative and unprovoked attack on the border with Nagorno-Karabakh and tried to infiltrate Armenian defensive positions. They also dismissed Azerbaijan’s statement that over 100 soldiers were killed and injured, pinning the number at 18 Armenian soldiers killed and 35 injured. Armenia also says that a child civilian was killed and two other children were injured. However, Armenia stated that their soldiers were able to force Azerbaijan’s troops to retreat. Who is right? It’s hard to say. Chances are, knowing the animosity between the two countries, neither are fully right.
The relationship between Azerbaijan and Armenia has had a tumultuous history. Even before the Bolsheviks Sovietized the Southern Caucasus in 1920, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a brief war with each other in 1918, and later, in 1988, while Armenia and Azerbaijan were both still Soviet Socialist Republics, tensions began to simmer in Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous oblast of Azerbaijan with an Armenian majority population. The Oblast’s parliament voted to unify with Armenia, and after some years of messy violence and conflict, fighting began in earnest between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought alongside the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The Nagorno-Karabakh War ended in an Armenian victory and a ceasefire in 1994, which froze the issue without a real resolution. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is still de facto independent, one of the many partially recognized independent countries across the former Soviet Union, and Armenia and Azerbaijan maintain a hostile relationship, with the two countries not even having official diplomatic relations.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have never really instituted a state of peace since the war. Armenia props up Nagorno-Karabakh by placing its troops all around the region, while Azerbaijan positions its forces all around the self-proclaimed border, squeezing on Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan claims that Armenia violates the ceasefire over 100 times on a daily basis, while Armenia counterclaims that Azerbaijan’s aggressive attitude in the area helps foment instability and discord in Nagorno-Karabakh. However, due to the conflict being frozen, outside of mild skirmishes, not much full-scale violence occurs in the disputed region. Before this event, the largest violation of the ceasefire was in 2008, with different casualty numbers reported by the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. However, no matter the number, it was all less than the thirty confirmed military deaths of the past 24 hours.
The recent escalation in violence led both countries in the West and Russia to call for the immediate cessation of all hostilities between the two sides. It was Russia, the US, and France, through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, that helped develop the ceasefire which terminated the war over 20 years ago. Armenia has closer relations with Russia, while Azerbaijan is often friendlier with the West; however, in regards to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, both Russia and the West try to remain as neutral as possible in regards to peace. In 2008, after the most violent skirmishes of that time over the disputed territory, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution respecting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and calling for all Armenians to leave the territory; 39 nations voted in favor, 100 nations abstained, and among the seven nations that voted against it, there were Russia, the United States, and France. And in response to the recent violence, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for both sides to not escalate the situation, saying that a general cessation of violence across the board was needed.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains one of the most complex and less reported-about issues in the former Soviet Union. The Nagorno-Karabakh War, which claimed over 30,000 lives, was one of the deadliest events to take place in the former USSR, much bloodier than the recent war in Eastern Ukraine, which gained much more attention from the international media. And although large-scale violence has since ceased, the constant skirmishes and border confrontations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have still taken many civilian and military lives over the years. However, in the largest flair up in violence between the two has potential to restart the talks towards an actual peace over Nagorno-Karabakh which have stalled since 1994. Thankfully, this event seems to be being reported on by international media outlets. This must happen in order to gain more of an understanding of what really occurred. Furthermore, Russia and the US must put aside their differences in other arenas and use this recent violence as impetus to pressure Armenia and Azerbaijan through the OSCE to create a more lasting peace, and finally resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Are the chances of this happening likely? Due to the vitriolic attitude on both sides, fueled by a century of ill-will and tensions between the two peoples, probably not. But that doesn’t mean that the international community as a whole cannot try.
Newborn Republic 
I guess we didn’t have attention for much besides Bosnia at the time of the N-K War? I hope this conflict will get some international attention, as you say, with peace as the end result.
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