During Baku's recent offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, 180 Azerbaijani soldiers, 12 service members of the Interior Ministry, and one Azerbaijani civilian were killed, the state-run Azerbaijani Press Agency reported on Sept. 27, citing the country's Health Ministry.
Some 511 troops were wounded during the military operation, and one more civilian was injured, the news agency added.
Azerbaijan launched an offensive against the Armenian authorities of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on Sept. 19 with the claimed "goal of restoring the constitutional order."
Following a day of clashes, Baku declared victory and ethnic Armenian forces were forced to disarm in accordance with a ceasefire agreement signed on Sept. 20.
Although Azerbaijan accused the Armenian government forces of taking part in the fighting, Yerevan refuted this, claiming that none of its troops took part in the hostilities or were deployed in Karabakh.
Igor Kossov
The authorities of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic said that at least 200 people were killed and 400 wounded as a result of Baku's offensive.
This number allegedly includes more than 40 injured and 10 killed civilians, as well as 13 injured and five killed children.
Following Azerbaijan's victory, over 28,000 ethnic Armenians have reportedly left the region for Armenia by Sept. 26, according to Yerevan.
Under international law, Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as Azerbaijani territory, but has been under the de-facto control of Armenian separatists since 1991, who refer to it as Artsakh. Yerevan has supported the breakaway territory militarily, which regularly clashed with Azerbaijani forces in the following decades.
In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a major war in which the latter's forces successfully reclaimed a large portion of the territory before a ceasefire was mediated by Moscow, which sent a "peacekeeping" force of several thousand Russian troops to the region.
In the following years, tensions did not subside, with Azerbaijan blockading the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, leading to a humanitarian crisis widely condemned by UN member states and international organizations.
Abbey Fenbert
(Updated: )
