Azeri President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenia last month of boycotting talks to prolong the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, frozen since Armenians captured the region in 1994 during a war with its neighbor. He said the negotiations mediated by Russia, the U.S. and France hadn’t brought results. 

"The time has come,” Azeri Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said while visiting troops in the front-line region, according to a statement on the ministry website. "Our people have run out of patience and demand that we take action to drive the enemy out of our lands.”

The conflict threatens to increase instability in a region where Azerbaijan provides the only westward route for central Asian oil and natural gas that bypasses Russia. An escalation would pose risks to the energy infrastructure around the Caspian Sea nation, the third-biggest oil producer in the former Soviet Union where BP Plc and partners have invested over $50 billion in energy projects since 1994.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned it will use force to regain control if peace talks fail. Armenians took the region and seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan after the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 30,000 people died in the war and 1.2 million fled their homes before Russia brokered a cease-fire in 1994.

Deadly clashes resumed last month after several weeks of relative calm accompanied the first European Games held in the Azeri capital in June.

Azerbaijan said in July that one of its soldiers died in skirmishes on the Armenian border. It also announced that five Armenian troops were killed, a claim Armenia denied.

     

Hasanov said Azerbaijan has the right under international law to use force to take back Nagorno-Karabakh, pointing to UN Security Council resolutions calling for Armenian withdrawal. He said the Azeri army will push Armenian forces out of what is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan.

"No one should doubt that,” he said.

 

(Bloomberg)