How long will the hostilities last, at what cost? Azerbaijani, Armenian leaders answer on Euronews
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev answered the questions of the English-language service of Euronews:
- What are the next steps for both countries?
- How long will the hostilities last and at what cost?
- What is needed to establish peace and is it possible now?
Fierce battles between the Azerbaijani and Armenian armies in Nagorno-Karabakh have continued since September 27. Officially, up to 400 people have been killed, both among the military and among the civilian population on both sides, thousands of wounded. Unofficially, much more. International organizations, the West and Russia are calling for an end to the violence without preconditions. The parties, however, accuse each other of the beginning of hostilities and put forward their own conditions on which they can agree to a truce.
In 2019, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to take “concrete measures to prepare the population for peace.” But now the region is experiencing the longest and largest clashes in 30 years, since the armistice was signed after the 1988-1994 Karabakh war. Other countries are being drawn into the conflict, increasing the risk of its expansion to a regional scale.
