Russia sponsors NagornoKarabakh cease-fire talks
MOSCOW — Russia moved to stop the worst escalation of fighting in the separatist region of Nagorno-karabakh in more than a quarter-century by hosting cease-fire talks on Friday.
Late Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a statement calling for a break in the fighting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that have raged for nearly two weeks over the region. The Kremlin said Putin’s initiative followed a series of calls with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began Sept. 27 and marked the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-karabakh.
The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
The Kremlin said Putin proposed calling a ceasefire to exchange prisoners and collect the bodies of dead soldiers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov greeted his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts at the ministry’s mansion in Moscow on Friday afternoon.
Armenia said it’s open to holding a cease-fire, while Azerbaijan has made a potential truce conditional on the Armenian forces’ withdrawal from NagornoKarabakh, arguing that the failure of international efforts to negotiate a settlement left it no other choice but to try to reclaim its lands by force.
Speaking in an address to the nation, the Azerbaijani president 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.”
“Mediators and leaders of some international organizations have stated that there is no military solution to the conflict,” Aliyev said. “I have disagreed with the thesis, and I have been right. The conflict is now being settled by military means and political means will come next.”
Azerbaijani officials and Nagorno-karabakh separatist authorities said heavy shelling continued overnight.
Fighting with heavy artillery, warplanes and drones has engulfed NagornoKarabakh despite numerous international calls for a cease-fire. Both sides have accused each other of targeting residential areas and civilian infrastructure.