Nagorno- Karabakh truce under strain as sides allege violations
BAKU/ YEREVAN ( Reuters) – A Russianbrokered humanitarian ceasefire in Nagorno- Karabakh was under severe strain on Sunday, a day after it was agreed to, as Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other of serious violations and crimes against civilians.
The ceasefire, clinched after marathon talks in Moscow advocated by President Vladimir Putin, was meant to halt fighting to allow ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno- Karabakh and Azeri forces to swap prisoners and war dead.
The Moscow talks were the first diplomatic contact between the two since fighting over the mountainous enclave erupted on September 27, killing hundreds of people. The enclave is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians.
Both sides accused one another of breaking the ceasefire almost immediately on Saturday, and Azerbaijan gave the impression in public comments from top officials that it saw it as only a brief and temporary breathing space anyway.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of heavily shelling a residential area in Ganja, its second- largest city, in the early hours of the morning and of hitting an apartment building.
The Azeri Prosecutor General’s Office said nine people had been killed and 34 wounded in the attack. Reuters could not independently verify Azeri assertions about the number of fatalities or wounded.
A Reuters photographer in Ganja saw rescue workers carrying one dead person from the ruins of the apartment building on Sunday morning. The structure had been almost leveled. An excavator was clearing the debris.
Buildings and cars in the immediate vicinity had been severely damaged.
Baku says more than 40 civilians have been killed and 200 wounded since the start of the conflict.
The Armenian Defense Ministry called the Azeri allegations about the attack on Ganja “an absolute lie” and accused Azerbaijan of continuing to shell populated areas inside Karabakh, including Stepanakert, the region’s biggest city.
Reuters footage from Stepanakert showed a small brick house damaged by shelling, its windows shattered and its roof caved in. The Karabakh authorities said 429 servicemen had
been killed since fighting erupted last month.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia of launching an unsuccessful rocket attack on an Azeri hydroelectric power station in Mingachevir. Ethnic Armenian forces in Karabakh denied the assertion.
The situation was relatively calm on Sunday morning, according to Arayik Haratyunyan, the leader of ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno- Karabakh. No one could say how long it would last, he said, and the frontline remained tense.
Haratyunyan accused Azeri forces of trying to unsuccessfully take control
of the town of Hadrut. the process of the two sides exchanging prisoners should have started on Sunday, but it was unclear if and when that would happen, he said.
Renewed fighting in the decades- old conflict has raised fears of a wider war drawing in Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, and Russia, which has a defense pact with Armenia.
The clashes have also increased concern about the security of pipelines that carry Azeri oil and gas to Europe.
The fighting is the worst since a 19911994 war that killed some 30,000 people and ended with a ceasefire that has been violated repeatedly.