Aug 3 (Reuters) – Separatist authorities in the ethnically Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh declared a partial mobilisation on Wednesday, amid growing frictions with Azerbaijan, the office of the president of the breakaway Artsakh Republic said.
Fighting erupted around the territory, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, in recent days, with Baku claiming to have killed 4 separatist soldiers and wounded 15 more.
Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan with Armenian support after a bloody post-Soviet ethnic conflict in the early 1990s. In 2020, Azerbaijan launched a second war in the region, successfully winning back part of the territory controlled by the Armenian-backed separatists.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Russian peacekeepers were deployed to protect the remainder of the separatist-held territory. However, ceasefire violations have been a regular occurrence.