Azerbaijan forces and separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed on a cease-fire Tuesday following three days of the heaviest fighting in the region since 1994, the Azeri defense ministry announced. Armenia’s seeking a “complete and final settlement” that could include the presence of peacekeepers between the two sides, Sargsyan said in an interview with Deutsche Welle. “Russian President Vladimir Putin talked on the telephone with his colleagues in Azerbaijan and Armenia”. Turkey closed the border with Armenia in the early 1990s over the conflict, giving Armenia land access to the outside world only through Georgia and Iran.
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Both sides report numerous casualties, accusing each other on Saturday of violating a ceasefire, a sign that the two-decade-old conflict which has left some 30,000 people dead is far from a peaceful resolution.
Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the United States has criticized the reality TV star for weighing in on the recent hostilities between his country’s military and the ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by the Armenian military, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh – a largely ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan.
Russian Federation is taking a leading role in mediating the dispute between former Soviet republics Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, aiming to reinforce its position in the Caucasus while Europe and the USA are preoccupied.
Armenian defence ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that sporadic shooting continued on Wednesday “including from tanks” but that it was “not as intensive” as during the previous days. Each party put enemy losses in the hundreds, rival claims that couldn’t be independently verified. Four civilians, including one child, were killed as well.
Conservative Foreign Affairs critic Tony Clement and deputy critic Peter Kent said they “strongly encourage Armenian and Azerbaijani forces to end this violence”. Speaking from the village of Gapanli, he said life was getting back to normal as a local school reopened.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is set to hold talks in Azerbaijan on Thursday, while Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is expected to visit the Armenian capital Yerevan on the same day.
Moscow sells arms to Muslim Azerbaijan and Christian Armenia, but has much closer ties with the latter, and maintains an army base and an airbase on Armenian territory, close to its closed border with Turkey.
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On Wednesday, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan blamed Baku for breaching the truce in Karabakh, but his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, pointed the finger at Yerevan, expressing hope that crisis will be resolved peacefully.
