Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov warned that Azeri troops were prepared for a major attack on Stepanakert (also known as Hankendi, population 50,000), the capital and largest city of the Nagorno-Karabakh, if separatists did “not stop shelling our settlements”.
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Karabakh’s Armenian-backed Defense Army said on Wednesday morning that the ceasefire largely held overnight.
The Azerbaijani armed forces fired towards civilian settlements and military units of the Armenian Vardenis city on April 6, 10:35-23:00.
Armenia’s defence ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that sporadic shooting continued on Wednesday “including from tanks, but not as intensive” as during the last days.
On a visit to Armenia on April 7, Medvedev said Russian Federation was ready to continue to act as an intermediary in resolving the conflict and hoped a cease-fire agreement would hold.
“We are today standing side-by-side with our brothers in Azerbaijan”.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) also refers to the territory as under the occupation of Armenian forces.
As late as Tuesday morning, both Azerbaijan and the Armenian-backed separatists had been reporting fresh clashes.
“Even if certain Armenian positions were at some point taken by Azeris, now they have all returned under Karabakh’s control”, Hovhannisyan, Armenia’s defence ministry spokesman, told AFP on Tuesday. Ignoring the calls of the global community for peace, Azerbaijan started large-scale military actions all along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact in what was the worst clash ever since the 1994 ceasefire agreement. Nakhchivan is surrounded by Armenia, Iran and Turkey. He added that there was no fighting during daytime Wednesday.
The fighting has raised fears of a possible escalation in hostilities, with Turkey strongly backing Azerbaijan and Russian Federation obliged to protect Armenia by a mutual security pact.
Russian Federation also has sought to maintain friendly ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan and given it weapons in a bid to shore up its influence in the Caucasus region, a conduit for energy resources from the Caspian Sea to the West.
The Azerbaijani people and armed forces have a high morale and desire to win, Dargahli said, stressing that the Azerbaijani army is able to give a desired response to any provocation of the enemy and will liberate the occupied territories by all means.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized after the talks with Sargsyan that upholding the cease-fire is the top priority.
“We are very sorry about the losses and death of innocent people”, he said.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany reiterated his appeal to the parties of the conflict regarding the situation and underscored once again that the NK conflict has no military solution; the parties must manifest political will and return to the negotiations conducted in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
Despite Baku’s efforts, though, Armenia’s allies in Congress condemned Azerbaijan as soon as the violence broke out.
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Though military leaders from the two countries signed a cease-fire Tuesday in Moscow, the region remains unstable, with both sides accusing each other Thursday of violating the truce.
