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Azerbaijan said Armenian forces fired heavily on a residential area early Sunday morning. Armenia called this a lie.
The ceasefire in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh Caucasus region between Armenia and Azerbaijan is proving to be fragile. A day after its entry into force, the parties to the conflict accused each other on Sunday of breaking the agreement again and attacking civilians. On Saturday they accused each other of initiating attacks a few minutes after the ceasefire began at noon.
Azerbaijan said that Armenian forces fired heavily on a residential area in Ganja (Ganja) early Sunday morning. A residential building in the second largest city in the country was affected. Azerbaijan’s attorney general said that at least five people were killed and at least 28 were injured. The attack violates the provisions of the Geneva Convention for the Protection of the Civilian Population.
The Armenian Defense Ministry rejected the accusations as an “outright lie” and, in turn, accused Azerbaijan of targeting residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh. The larger city of Stepanakert is also affected. The leader of the fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh described the morning situation as tense, but still relatively calm. He accused the Azerbaijani armed forces of trying to take control of the city of Hadrut, but to no avail.
Most of the Christian Armenians live in Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus, the leadership there is supported by the Armenian government in Yerevan (Yerevan). Under international law, the area belongs to predominantly Islamic Azerbaijan, which it resigned in 1991. As Armenia is allied with Russia and Azerbaijan is supported by Turkey, the conflict threatens to spread beyond the region with far-reaching consequences. for the economy. Important oil and gas pipelines run through the southern Caucasus.
With the mediation of Russia, the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Moscow on Saturday night. After that, prisoners will be exchanged and the bodies of those killed in the clashes will be handed over. Hundreds of people are said to have been killed in clashes between the Azerbaijani army and Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27.
The lines of conflict at a glance
For almost two weeks there have been new fighting with hundreds of deaths in Nagorno-Karabakh. The fighting continued on Friday. The capital, Stepanakert, was again hit by rockets and Azerbaijan claims to have captured nine villages. A total of 320 Armenian soldiers have died in Nagorno-Karabakh since the beginning of the fighting. Azerbaijan has yet to provide any information on its own victims, but it does speak of some 30 civilians killed. There are thousands of refugees in the troubled region.
The background to the conflict: In a war after the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago, Azerbaijan lost control of the area. Nagorno-Karabakh is now inhabited by Karabakh-Armenian Christians. Since 1994 there has been a fragile ceasefire.
Azerbaijan is receiving support from Turkey in the conflict. They are also said to be involved in fighting foreign mercenaries and fighters from jihadist groups from war zones in Syria and Libya. So far there is no clear evidence. Russia has diplomatic and economic ties with both former Soviet republics. However, those in Armenia are more intense. Russia also has a military base there.
(APA / Reuters / Red.)
