Ceasefire could lead to peace talks
Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to a ceasefire in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karbakh.
The top diplomats from the two countries said yesterday the truce was intended to allow an exchange of prisoners and to recover bodies.
The announcement followed 10 hours of talks between the diplomats in Moscow, which were sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Lavrov said the ceasefire should pave way for talks on settling the conflict.
The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began on September 27 and has left hundreds of people dead in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
The talks between the foreign
ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan were held at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a series of phone calls with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Speaking in an address to the nation yesterday, Aliyev said nearly three decades of international talks ‘‘haven’t yielded an inch of progress, we haven’t been given back an inch of the occupied lands’’.
Azerbaijani officials and Nagorno-Karabakh separatist authorities have accused each other of targeting residential areas and civilian infrastructure.
Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, has been under intense shelling. Residents are staying in shelters, some of which are in the basements of apartment buildings.
Armenian officials say Turkey is involved in the conflict and is sending Syrian mercenaries to fight on Azerbaijan’s side. Turkey has publicly backed Azerbaijan in the conflict but has denied sending combatants.