Azerbaijan Launched a Large-Scale Offensive in the Karabakh Conflict Zone

Both Baku and Yerevan report the advance of the Azerbaijani army in the southern direction. Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that Armenia is ready for mutual concessions, but only if Azerbaijan also accepts them. Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov instructed to continue the offensive on the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday, October 6. According to the Armenian side, the Azerbaijani army launched a large-scale offensive in the southern direction on the border with Iran, involving reservists and a large number of equipment, in particular tanks and artillery. The Armenian Foreign Ministry in its statement drew attention to the fact that the attack “takes place during the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister to Baku and a few hours after the statement of the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries.” The Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan wrote on her Facebook page that the Azerbaijani armed forces resumed rocket attacks on the capital of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) - Stepanakert. At the same time, Stepanyan denied the reports of Baku that the Armenian side was shelling the territory of Azerbaijan. Thus, in particular, the press secretary of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Anar Eyvazov stated that the Armenian Armed Forces continue to intensively fire at densely populated areas and regions of Azerbaijan, delivering missile strikes from the Armenian territory. According to Eyvazov, Azerbaijan is ready to open humanitarian corridors for the Armenian civilian population. “This appeal also refers to the servicemen who decided to save their lives and surrendered voluntarily,” the spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry added. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with AFP that Yerevan is ready to make concessions in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, but only on condition of mutual concessions from Baku.