Russian Federation has moved to mediate an intractable frozen conflict in the volatile South Caucasus.
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Both sides were later accused of ethnic cleansing and war crimes, including the April 1992 massacre of more than 100 ethnic Armenian civilians in Maragah and the slaughter of 160 Azeri villagers in Khojaly in February 1992.
On a visit to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasised Moscow’s special role as mediator.
The German leader also said she would host Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev for talks in June.
“The ceasefire was largely observed overnight along the Karabakh frontline”, said the Armenia-backed separatist defence ministry in Karabakh.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan, whose military spending exceeds Armenia’s entire state budget, has repeatedly threatened to take back the breakaway region by force.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the resumption of negotiations between Baku and Yerevan with the assistance of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to seek a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Turkey is a staunch, vocal ally of Azerbaijan with no diplomatic relations with Armenia. If the truce held, he hoped talks to find a lasting solution to the dispute could be resumed.
Critics have long maintained that Russian Federation is interested in perpetuating post-Soviet territorial conflicts that allow Moscow to exert long-term influence in its neighborhood by playing both hands against the middle.
He said that this approach leaves no sense of the intensity and danger posed by this latest flare-up of violence.
Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on an immediate ceasefire on Tuesday, after nearly four days of intense fighting in the disputed Azerbaijan’s region of Nagorno-Karabakh with predominantly Armenian population. Sargsyan warned on Monday that escalation in the conflict could trigger a “full-scale war”, threatening to destabilize a region flanked by Russia, Turkey and Iran. Azerbaijan demands respect for its territorial integrity.
“From April 2nd the Armed Forces of Armenia began shooting at Azerbaijani villages and residential areas; they attacked military positions of Azerbaijan”. One difference between the conflict now and that of 1994 is that both sides have much more deadly and sophisticated weaponry.
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Two men, including one who was arrested for murder but found not competent to stand trial, have escaped from a psychiatric facility in Washington state and authorities are warning they pose a danger to others. A Reuters reporter in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Martuni district, near the front line with Azerbaijan’s forces, said there was no sign of fighting on Thursday.
