The failure of a third attempt to cease fire in Nagorno Karabakh, and the two sides exchanged accusations of “blatant violation” of the armistice negotiated in Washington
A third attempt Monday to stop the fighting between the Azerbaijani army and Armenian forces in Nagorno Karabakh failed, and the two sides exchanged accusations of “blatant violation” of the ceasefire negotiated in Washington.
This “humanitarian ceasefire” in the mountainous region of the Caucasus was scheduled to enter into force since September 27th, and it would come into effect on Monday at 8:00 am local time (0400 GMT), but the warring parties immediately reported its violation as happened.
In the previous two attempts during the last two weeks.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accused the Armenian forces of bombing the town of Tartar and neighboring villages, as well as Baku army sites, affirming, on its part, the “strict respect” of the agreement.
Hikmat Hajiyev, an aide to the Azerbaijani President, said, “This shows once again that Armenia only supports the principle of humanitarian armistice in words.
In fact, it is covering up behind the armistice and trying to regroup its forces and trying to control new sites”.
For its part, the “Ministry of Defense” in Nagorno Karabakh condemned the hostile artillery shelling of its locations in various areas of the front, stressing that its forces “continue to fully adhere to the ceasefire”.
According to the delegate in charge of human rights in Nagorno Karabakh, a civilian was killed and two others were wounded Monday in an Azerbaijani missile attack on a town in this separatist region.
Each side denounced the “flagrant violation” of the armistice by the opponent.
The deal was negotiated over the weekend in Washington amid US President Donald Trump’s campaign for re-election.
The latter promised that he would “find a solution” to this conflict, stressing that this would be easy.
The first truce between Yerevan and Baku was reached in Moscow on October 10, and the second was announced in Paris on October 17, but they did not hold.
In Stepanakert, the largest city in the Nagorno Karabakh region, calm prevailed during the night, according to an AFP correspondent.
But ten minutes before the ceasefire came into effect on Monday morning, an explosion erupted and smoke was seen on a nearby hilltop, then artillery shelling was heard twice from a distance.
The international community has so far seemed unable to push for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, or even a permanent armistice.
Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan has shown resilience.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week ruled out any “diplomatic solution” to the conflict and called for volunteers to join the front.
For his part, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev described his opponents as “dogs” and “wild animals”, declaring that any negotiations must be preceded by the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the territory that the international community considers part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has used its oil revenues in recent years for armaments, mainly from Russia, Turkey and Israel.
Ankara has been accused of deploying pro-Turkish fighters from Syria to the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the death toll is close to 5,000, in the most violent escalation between the two former Soviet republics in more than two decades.
Since September 27, Azerbaijani forces have seized lands outside their control since the war that broke out in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, killing 30,000 people.
The conflict resulted in the region declaring its secession.
The Minsk Group mediators and ministers from the two countries agreed to meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss “the necessary measures to reach a peaceful solution,” according to a statement.
