(Reuters) – Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week has claimed more than 200 lives, the two countries said on Friday, as the dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has once again escalated into clashes, the two countries said on Friday. more violent since the fall 2020 conflict.
Despite a ceasefire concluded on Wednesday evening under the aegis of Russia, the tension between the two Caucasian republics continues to cause concern and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke again on Friday with the Prime Minister Armenian, Nikol Pashinian, recalling his desire to promote dialogue between the two neighbours.
The head of the Armenian government also spoke on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
During a session in parliament in Yerevan, Nikol Pashinian put forward a toll of 135 Armenians killed in the latest fighting, the Interfax agency reported. A previous assessment reported 105 killed in the Armenian ranks.
Azerbaijan, for its part, raised the number of losses in its ranks from 71 to 77.
The two countries, which reject the responsibility for these new fights, warned that these assessments risked becoming heavier.
For decades, they have opposed each other, sometimes with arms, over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijani territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated and controlled, until the 2020 conflict, by Armenians. .
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of having attacked and seized localities even on its territory, beyond Nagorno-Karabakh, this week. Azerbaijan, for its part, claims to have responded to Armenian “provocations”.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire ended the fighting on Wednesday evening but the border situation remains tense, Pashinyan said on Friday.
Russia, which has forged a strategic military partnership with Armenia while striving to maintain good relations with Azerbaijan, said it would pressure the two countries to withdraw their forces from the positions they occupied before the clashes of the week.
In his telephone interview with Nikol Pashinian, Emmanuel Macron reiterated “his appeal to the parties to respect the ceasefire” and “recalled his determination to allow dialogue and the continuation of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, for lasting peace in the region”, reported the Elysée.
The French president also “reaffirmed his attachment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of Armenia”.
(Editing by Reuters, French version Bertrand Boucey, editing by Kate Entringer)