From The Foreign scene
Azerbaijan said on Thursday that 71 of its troops had died in border clashes with Armenia over the last two days in the worst fighting since 2020.
Yerevan said a ceasefire was holding on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, with no fresh violence reported overnight.
The earlier death toll given by Azerbaijan was 50.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry published a list of 71 servicemen killed in clashes between the historic rivals since Tuesday while Yerevan said 105 of its troops were killed.
The clashes ended “thanks to the international involvement” overnight on Thursday, Armenia’s security council said, after earlier failed attempts from Russia to broker a truce.
The European Union welcomed the ceasefire, which it said was “being respected so far.”
EU Special Representative, Toivo Klaar, was holding high-level consultations in Baku, the Azerbaijan capital on Wednesday and in Yerevan on Thursday, he said.
Baku and Yerevan have traded accusations of initiating the violence, which saw hundreds of Armenian civilians flee their homes.
The escalation came as Yerevan’s closest ally Moscow is distracted by its nearly seven-month war in Ukraine.
A delegation of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) — a Moscow-led grouping of several ex-Soviet republics — is due in Yerevan later Thursday, Armenia’s foreign ministry said.
Armenia is a member of CSTO but Azerbaijan is not.
On Tuesday, Armenia’s security council asked for military help from Moscow, which is obliged under the treaty to defend Armenia in the event of a foreign invasion.
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