‘We can’t trust them’

“Our country is ready to respect the ceasefire but the others will not... We can’t trust them,” Sveta Petrosyan, a 65 year old with two sons at the front, told AFP outside her apartment.

Stepanakert has come under

Aliyev described the Ganja attack as a war crime and vowed his army would ‘take revenge on the battlefield’.

In Azerbaijan’s frontline town of Terter, residents told AFP there had been some shelling around midday but that Sunday was the quietest it had been in several days.

“I don’t know if the ceasefire will last and I don’t care,” said Elshad Rezayev (35). “They killed our women and children. All I want to do is pick up a gun and go fight them so that this is finished forever.”

The clashes over Karabakh that erupted on September 27 have left more than 700 dead, including scores of civilians on both sides.

The real death toll is probably much higher, as most of the deaths have been reported among Armenian separatist forces and Azerbaijan has not released any figures on its military casualties.

Azerbaijan says it has retaken significant territory in areas along the frontline, including two regional centres - Jabrayil and Fizuli - in a no-man’s land splitting Nagorno-Karabakh proper from territory under Azerbaijani control. It also claims to have taken several areas of strategic high ground.

Analysts say its gains may be enough for Baku to declare a halt to the fighting ahead of winter.