On September 19, Azerbaijan suddenly announced a so-called "anti-terrorist operation" in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which led to a brutal surprise attack on Armenia's military forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which led to the outbreak of fierce armed clashes between the two sides. After the outbreak of the conflict, the two major powers of the United States and Russia called on both sides to remain calm and stop armed actions, France, Germany, the European Union and the United Nations and other parties also made the same voice, but Azerbaijan still launched a fierce attack on the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region on the 20th.
According to Reuters, citing a former senior official of the Armenian government, Valdanyan, the conflict has left 100 dead and hundreds injured on the Armenian side. He said that this is a big war, Azerbaijan has started a full-scale operation, and they are basically saying to Armenia, we need to leave, or accept Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense confirmed that on the night of September 20, local time, the country's army controlled 60 strongholds in Armenia, destroyed more than 20 military vehicles, more than 70 artillery pieces, 2 air defense systems and 6 electronic warfare platforms. However, the Azerbaijani side did not disclose the casualties on the Armenian side.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia of violating the ceasefire signed by Azerbaijan and Russia and of intensifying its military presence in the Nagorno-Karabakh region over the past three years. The military operation was aimed at disarming Armenia's military forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and clearing all its military infrastructure in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Azerbaijani side stressed that civilians are free to leave through humanitarian corridors, including to Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan denied the country's armed forces being raised in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, called on U.N. Security Council members to assist, and called on Russian peacekeepers stationed there to intervene.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region is an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, but part of it is controlled by Armenia. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the two countries have repeatedly clashed over sovereignty over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. A few days ago, Armenia criticized Russia for focusing too much on the Ukrainian crisis to meet all Armenia's national security needs, and accused Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of failing to perform their duties. The Armenian Defense Ministry also announced that the country and the United States will hold the "Eagle Partnership 2023" joint military exercise between September 11 and September 20. The US military obviously wants to win over Armenia to weaken Russia's influence in the region, and Armenia hopes to find a "backer" again. However, the facts showed that the support of the US military was not good, because just when the US-Asian joint military exercise was in full swing, Azerbaijan suddenly launched an attack on Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia was caught off guard.
Newsweek reported that Armenia has always been a close ally of Russia, and the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that lasted for a month in 2020 was also mediated by Russia. After the armed conflict, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Armenia to condemn Azerbaijan's "illegal" attacks. Armenia has openly criticized Moscow for not providing enough support in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, and there has been a rift in relations between the two countries. Armenian Prime Minister Pasinyan said in an interview with the media that although Russia has supported Armenia against Azerbaijan in the past, Putin is dissatisfied with the Armenian government's growing Western leaning and its inability to meet Armenia's security needs because it is fully responsive to the Ukraine crisis. Therefore, Armenia should minimize its dependence on other countries, and seeking Russian protection is not sustainable.
However, the outside world believes that Russia has always maintained a neutral position on the sovereignty of Nagorno-Karabakh and has repeatedly mediated the Asian-Afghan conflict, but Armenia has now begun to turn to the United States. But what Armenia did not expect at all was that when it was still holding a military exercise with the US military, it was brutally attacked by Azerbaijan, but the US military, which had high hopes, remained silent, and as a result, the joint military exercise only "played a loneliness." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken simply called on Azerbaijan to cease hostilities. Azerbaijani President Aliyev explicitly told Blinken that Azerbaijan would never cease fire if Armenia's "illegal forces" in the Nagorno-Karabakh region did not lay down their arms and surrender. As for Armenia's past "backers", Russia only symbolically called on both sides to remain calm, or the Azerbaijani military operation itself was tacitly approved by Russia, and hit the Americans in the face, because without diamonds, you can't take porcelain work.
Today, Armenia has neither security protection from the United States nor strong support from Russia, and its own relatively weak strength makes it clearly inferior in this brief armed conflict. From a military point of view, in this armed conflict, the Azerbaijani army "preemptively" taught Armenia in front of the US military, firmly grasped the initiative in the Nagorno-Karabakh battlefield, and forced Armenia to sign the "alliance under the city". It is reported that just 24 hours after the so-called "anti-terrorism" operation launched in Assabai, Armenia's "illegal armed forces" have surrendered and agreed to sign a ceasefire agreement, which may be the end of the pro-American regime.