Georgian officials are concerned with the recent reports of resumed hostilities between the two neighbouring countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Calling for peace in the region, President Salome Zurabishvili has tweeted:
Very concerned with the resumption of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We call for peace. Stability and peace in our region must be our common cause.
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S)
Zurabishvili, who met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov a couple of days ago in Tbilisi, has then noted that Georgia is ready ‘to serve as a platform to contribute for regional peace and stability’.
If the will is there on each side, Georgia is ready to serve as a platform to contribute for regional peace and stability.
Good to meet the new MFA of Azerbaijan @bayramov_jeyhun. pic.twitter.com/QGrCAafdnh
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) September 24, 2020
The Georgian Foreign Ministry is also following the developments between Armenia and Azerbaijan 'with concern’.
We hope that a ceasefire agreement will be reached, the sides will start negotiating and avoid more large-scale military activities that endanger the security of the entire region”, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
Georgia also calls on the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the rest of the international community to spare no efforts to ensure the suspension of the confrontation on the ground and resumption of peace talks between the sides.
Georgia is ready to contribute to de-escalation [of the process] and to help establish the peace in the region”, the Foreign Ministry announced.
While Armenia and Azerbaijan trade accusations for the recent confrontation on the border, both sides have reported civilian deaths. BBC reports that Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said Azerbaijan had launched an air and artillery attack, while Azerbaijan said it was responding to shelling along the whole front.
- Georgian gov’t denies weapons entered Armenia via Georgia, calls Azerbaijan ‘a strategic partner’
Mewnahile, Azerbaijani new agency Trend.az cited President Ilham Aliyev as saying that ‘Armenian armed forced opened fire on our settlements, as well as our military positions, from several directions this morning, using various types of weaponry, including heavy artillery’.
Aliyev claimed that ‘as a result of the enemy fire, there are casualties among the civilian population and our servicemen. Some people have been wounded’.
- Georgia concerned by armed confrontation on Azerbaijan-Armenia border
On his part, Nikol Pashinyan has announced that the country is declaring martial law and general mobilisation.
At the decision of the Government, martial law and general mobilization is being declared in the Republic of #Armenia. I call on the personnel attached to the troops to present themselves to their district commissariats.
For the fatherland, for victory.
— Nikol Pashinyan (@NikolPashinyan)
Armenian News.am agency has released Armenian Defence Ministry video footage of the hostilities: