The Azerbaijani military operation in Nagorno Karabakh has so far left 25 dead on the Armenian separatist side, including two civilians, the secessionist authorities of the enclave announced on Tuesday night.
“According to the information received from the Stepanakert morgue by the Human Rights Defender’s Office, at 8:00 p.m. (16:00 GMT), there are 25 victims of the terrorist attack in Azerbaijan, including 2 civilians,” he said. He indicated on X (ex-Twitter) Gegham Stepanian, the defender of the rights of the separatist region.
Clashes in front of the Armenian government headquarters
Clashes broke out in Yerevan on Tuesday afternoon between police officers protecting the headquarters of the Armenian Government and protesters, following the military operation launched by Azerbaijan against Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to images from Armenian media.
The police cordon, which was subjected to bottle throwing, resisted at night a crowd of protesters who pressured it to enter the building. The windows of the main door were broken, according to images from the Armenian affiliate of the American media RFE/RL.
The police used stun grenades.
Earlier, protesters called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, accusing him of failing to defend Nagorno-Karabakh.
“It is impossible to have a leader who loses our territories,” Gevorg Gevorgyan, a veteran of the two previous wars between Yerevan and Baku in Karabakh (in the 1990s and in 2020), said from the crowd.
“We want to show that the Armenian people will not abandon the inhabitants of Artsakh,” the Armenian name for the region, he added to AFP.
Another protester, Avetik Chalabyan, called for “giving Pashinian a very limited time to renounce his statement” made in May in Prague recognizing Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh, much to the dismay of many Armenians.
“If the government does not protect its 120,000 compatriots (in Karabakh), it is a traitor and must resign,” he promised AFP. Before adding: Pashinian “keeps promising peace for three years and yet here we are: a third war has begun.”
Azerbaijani army says it has captured more than 60 Armenian positions
The Azerbaijani military declared late Tuesday that it had taken more than 60 Armenian positions during its offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region disputed for decades with Armenia.
“More than 60 combat positions of the Armenian (separatist) forces are now under the control of our armed forces,” a Defense Ministry spokesman, Anar Eyvazov, said during a press conference.
