Bubbling Over

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Clashes erupted along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday, raising fears that the latest outbreak of hostilities could ignite another war between the neighboring south Caucasus countries, Sky News reported.

Armenian officials said at least 49 of its soldiers were killed during the skirmishes, adding that Azerbaijan had been shelling a number of towns near the border.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of initiating the attack because it did not want to negotiate over the status of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan which is mainly populated by ethnic Armenians.

Azerbaijan countered that Armenian forces had been engaged in intelligence activity on its border, and had been moving weapons and planting mines. It added that it lost 50 soldiers in the clashes.

Russia, which has previously intervened between the former Soviet republics, announced later Tuesday that it had succeeded in bringing the fighting to a halt. Even so, there have been reports of continuing skirmishes, according to the Guardian.

The recent hostilities come nearly two years after the two nations fought a six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Conflict over the region had begun in the 1980s and resulted in a 1994 ceasefire that saw ethnic Armenian forces take control of the territory – with backing from the Armenian government.

Following the 2020 war, Azerbaijan retook partial control of Nagorno-Karabakh following a Russian-brokered truce. Despite its brevity, over 6,600 people were killed during the war.