In view of the escalation in the Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting today, according to diplomats. The initiative for the meeting behind closed doors came from Germany and France, it was said yesterday at the UN headquarters in New York. Several other European countries would have supported this.
The two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting for decades over the predominantly Armenian-inhabited Nagorno-Karabakh region. Now, after years of relative calm, the military conflict has flared up again. Azerbaijan’s army and Armenia-backed rebel forces controlling Nagorno-Karabakh fought fierce skirmishes on Sunday and yesterday, killing dozens of people.
Today there was also a growing fear that the fighting would spread through interference by foreign powers. “External interference is unacceptable,” warned a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. The pro-Armenian regional government of Nagorno-Karabakh had previously stated that Turkey was supporting the Azerbaijani side in the fighting with weapons and mercenaries.
