Sep 15(ABC): Azerbaijan on Wednesday offered to return the bodies 100 Armenian troops killed in the worst clashes between the historic rivals since their war in 2020.
The offer came just a day after fighting erupted between the arch foes, and each accused the other of violating a fragile truce that one analyst described as “neither war, nor peace”.
Azerbaijan’s commission on prisoners of war called for a ceasefire and said it was “ready to unilaterally hand over the bodies of 100 Armenian servicemen to Armenia.”
Yerevan confirmed Wednesday that 105 of its troops were killed in the recent clashes, while Baku reported the death of 50 its servicemen.
Russia announced on Tuesday that it had negotiated a ceasefire but on Wednesday, Armenia’s defence ministry said “the enemy re-launched its attack by using artillery, mortar, large-calibre firearms in the directions of Jermuk, Verin Shorzha” on the border.
“Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership continues its acts of aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia, targeting both military and civilian infrastructure,” Wednesday’s statement said.
The ministry spokesman Aram Tonoyan said later on Wednesday that Azerbaijani rocket-artillery shelling intensified, including on peaceful settlement.”
The Azerbaijani defence ministry said Armenian forces “violated the ceasefire… and shelled Azerbaijani positions near Kelbajar and Lachin with mortars and artillery.”
Tuesday’s escalation came as Yerevan’s closest ally Moscow is distracted by its six-month-old war against Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that “Definitely, tensions persisted” Wednesday on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
He said a delegation of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) — a Moscow-led grouping of ex-Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — was due in Yerevan later on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Armenia’s security council asked for military help from Moscow, which is obligated under the treaty to defend Armenia in the event of foreign invasion.