:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2020/m/A/UjXJ3ERAqCr70c7bmOJA/ap20291574635047.jpg)
[ad_1]
The truce defined this Saturday (17) came into force at midnight, local time, after a week-long Russian-mediated ceasefire It failed to stop the biggest fighting in the South Caucasus since the 1990s.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the Azeri army fired twice during the night and used artillery. For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry accused Armenia of firing mortars and artillery near the city of Jabrail, in Nagorno-Karabakh and in villages in the region.
- UNDERSTAND: The confrontations between Armenia and Azerbaijan involve a long-standing territorial dispute in the Caucasus; know more
Nagorno-Karabakh officials said Azeri forces attacked military positions in the enclave, causing casualties.
The truce announced to begin Sunday comes after Russian diplomatic chief Sergei Lavrov held telephone conversations with his colleagues in Armenia and Azerbaijan, in which, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, he stressed “the need to strictly follow “the ceasefire agreement agreed in Moscow last Saturday.
Neighbor comforts a woman who destroyed her house during the attack on Stepanakert, in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, this Saturday (17) – Photo: AP
Hours earlier, the government of Azerbaijan reported that 13 civilians were killed and more than 50 injured in the city of Ganja, the second largest in the country, in an explosion attributed to Armenia. According to Azerbaijan, two shells hit residential buildings. The Armenian government has accused Azerbaijan of continuous shelling in the country.
5 points to understand the confrontations between Armenia and Azerbaijan
Clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh
Saturday’s bombing was another episode of violence after the escalation of tension between the two countries over of the dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist region in Azerbaijan, but mostly ethnic Armenian. The two nations have been in conflict since late September over the region. A ceasefire went into effect on October 10, but was interrupted by the bombardment in Ganja.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region has 140,000 inhabitants, 99% of whom are Armenians. Clashes between separatists and Azeris began on September 27 and since then, according to official accounts, the conflict has left more than 600 dead.
The region declared its independence from Azerbaijan shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union. This movement unleashed a war that caused 30,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of refugees from both sides in the 1990s.
Since then, the government of Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of occupying its territory and armed clashes are recurrent.
Map of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh – Photo: Alexandre Mauro / G1
The current clashes have been the most serious since 1994. After almost 30 years of diplomatic stalemate, Azerbaijani President Ilham Alyev promised to regain control of this territory, even by force, if necessary.
Armenia is a country with a Christian majority, while Azerbaijan is predominantly Muslim. Decades of negotiations, mediated by foreign powers, have never reached a peace treaty.
But the conflict goes beyond the religious question, gaining geopolitical contours. Turkey, which has close ties to Azerbaijan, said it was “fully prepared” to help its ally regain control of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Turkish government accuses Armenia of illegally occupying Azerbaijani territory. Armenia says Turkey has encouraged Azerbaijan to seek a military solution to the conflict, putting Armenian civilians at risk.
Russia, for its part, has stable relations with both, but it is an important ally of Armenia and maintains a military base there.
