Merkel Wants Immediate Armistice in Nagorno-Karabakh

In phone calls with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pushed for an immediate end to the fighting.

 

Her spokesman reported this on Tuesday. She called in response to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“The Chancellor has pushed for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table,” said the spokesman. Merkel spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday and with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday.

Merkel has also raised the possibility of help from the Minsk group for dialogue. The Minsk Group is a group of mediators led by France, Russia and the US.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council will also hold an emergency meeting due to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Fighting has broken out again since Sunday after about 26 years of the ceasefire in the region. There have already been deaths on both sides. Azerbaijan has repeatedly announced its intention to recapture the mountain region since the war in the 1990s.

Armenia, in turn, sees it as a historical injustice that former Soviet leader Josef Stalin once attributed the region to the predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan.

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