Azerbaijan has recently launched a massive military attack in Nagorno Karabakh, in the southern Caucasus. Since this morning Stepanakert, the capital of the Armenian exclave, has been hit relentlessly by Azeri artillery and drones. The offensive effectively canceled the ceasefire agreement signed in 2020 after the 44-day war. It is impossible for the more than 120,000 inhabitants of Karabakh to seek safety in Armenia, because since last December Azerbaijan has blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only escape route, creating a humanitarian disaster. Now the final blow to the peaceful Armenian community of Karabakh exhausted by nine months of isolation from the rest of the world, deprived of food, medicines, electricity, gas and water.
The Nagorno Karabakh war explodes again: the Azerbaijani army attacks the cities of the Armenian minority
«This unprovoked aggression in Nagorno Karabakh can only be described as mass atrocity. Azerbaijan is completely ignoring all previous efforts to stabilize the situation and related international appeals” declared Tsovinar Hambardzumyan, Armenian ambassador to Italy this morning.
Karabakh also betrayed by Russia whose interposition force, according to the agreements signed two years ago, should have guaranteed the truce. Instead, Moscow for the umpteenth time not only did not intervene to defend the Armenian community, but was even “warned of the ongoing offensive”, as official Azerbaijani sources report. If this were the case, the rift between Russia and Armenia – confirmed in a recent interview also by Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan – could have been definitively consummated: the Independence Day which will be celebrated in Yerevan and throughout the country on 21 September could reserve other surprises.
At the moment there are numerous victims and injuries among civilians. “There are at least 2 dead, including a child, and 11 injured, including 8 children,” said Gegham Stepanyan, Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Artsakh.