Top EU Official Talks De-Escalation With Azerbaijani, Armenian Leaders

The European Council head on Friday held separate phone calls with Azerbaijan's president and the Armenian premier to help bring down heightened tensions in the region.

During his calls with Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, Charles Michel stressed the need to work together "to ensure de-escalation and open connections."

"Ahead of our next leaders meeting in Brussels, pursuing dialogue and achieving concrete progress on all items on the agenda is key," he said on Twitter, adding that the EU remains committed.

Azerbaijan said it launched a retaliatory operation on Wednesday against Armenian forces in the Karabakh region after Armenia opened fire and killed an Azerbaijani soldier, according to its Defense Ministry.

Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of violating the fall 2020 agreement that ended the 44-day Karabakh War, with Azerbaijan dismissing the charge as "nothing but mere hypocrisy."

Azerbaijan has decried Armenia's failure to fulfill the provisions of the agreement, particularly how Armenian armed forces have not yet fully pulled out of Azerbaijani territories.

Relations between the former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh (Upper Karabakh), a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

After new clashes during the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and over 300 settlements and villages occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

The fighting ended in November 2020 with a Russia-brokered deal. -