Azerbaijan calls for truce with Armenia as deaths mount

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) – Azerbaijan on Wednesday called for a cease-fire with Armenia amid fresh border clashes that have caused dozens of casualties on both sides.

As a humanitarian gesture, Baku said it is willing to hand over the bodies of 100 Armenian servicemen killed in fighting over the past two days.

The soldiers “died as a result of … provocation against the territorial integrity” of Azerbaijan on Sept. 12-13, said a statement by Azerbaijan’s State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.

“The International Committee of Red Cross has also been informed about this,” it added.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told parliament on Wednesday that 105 Armenian soldiers had died in the recent flare-up, while the count of Azerbaijani fatalities given by Baku stands at 50.

Azerbaijan maintains that “large-scale provocations” by Armenian forces triggered the deadly fighting.

The clashes are the latest among the two former Soviet republics, who have had tense relations since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

They follow the 2020 conflict that saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied Armenia. That bout of fighting ended with a deal brokered by Russia.