EU calls for ‘cessation of hostilities’ between Armenia and Azerbaijan

The European Union has for a “cessation of hostilities” between Armenia and Azerbaijan after a number of troopers had been reportedly killed throughout renewed clashes within the separatist area of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The flare-up of tensions between the 2 nations happened “across the Lachin hall and different locations alongside the Line of Contact,” a assertion from the EU’s Exterior Motion mentioned on Wednesday. 

European Council President Charles Michel is in the meantime “carefully engaged” with the leaders of each nations and has spoken with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, an EU official mentioned on Thursday. He’ll converse to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “quickly”.

“His workforce and the EU Particular Consultant Toivo Klaar have been in intense contact with each side over the previous days, to push for speedy de-escalation and progress on all agenda gadgets on the desk through dialogue,” the official added. 

The 2 nations have blamed one another for the newest tensions. The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry mentioned considered one of its servicemen “died of a bullet wound” in the course of the clashes whereas Armenia’s PM Pashinyan mentioned on Thursday that two of his nation’s servicemen “had been killed.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a violent conflict within the Nineteen Nineties after the collapse of the Soviet Union over management of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area — a mountainous territory nestled between the 2 nations — during which an estimated 30,000 folks died.

A six-week flare-up of tensions in 2020 led to an estimated 6,500 deaths and ended after a Russian-brokered ceasefire settlement below which Armenia ceded giant components of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Moscow additionally deployed some 2,000 troopers it says are on a peacekeeping mission.