Overshadowed by the fighting in Ukraine, another armed conflict in the former Soviet Union — between Armenia and Azerbaijan
over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh — has escalated with deadly
ferocity in recent months, killing dozens of soldiers on each side and
pushing the countries perilously close to open war.
In the New York Times,
David M Herszenhorn writes that the
most recent clashes prompted an unusually pointed rebuke by
international mediators who met on Monday in Krakow, Poland, with the
Azerbaijani foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov.
“The
rise in violence that began last year must stop,” the mediators, from
France, Russia and the United States, said in a joint statement, adding,
“We called on Azerbaijan to observe its commitments to a peaceful
resolution of the conflict. We also called on Armenia to take all
measures to reduce tensions.”
Instead, the violence has continued.
