Putin calls for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls on the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers to start talks | World

The fighting continued throughout the day and Armenian officials said that Two Russian journalists were injured in an Azerbaijani attack on a historic cathedral in Nagorno-Karabakh (read more at the end of the story).

Located in the Caucasus, Armenia and Azerbaijan belonged to the Soviet Union (1922-1991). Russia has a military alliance with the Armenians, but currently maintains good relations with the Azeri government and not interested in a conflict in the region.

Earlier this week, the President of Azerbaijan made any ceasefire conditional on the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia said it is willing to work with the mediation group led by the United States, Russia and France, the Minsk Group, which has been in existence since the 1990s.

Also according to the Kremlin, Putin spoke a lot with the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, as with the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan. The head of Armenian diplomacy has confirmed that he will be received in Moscow on Monday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to France Presse.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov was in Geneva, Switzerland, to meet with the Minsk Group.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Since September 27, Armenian separatists from the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijani forces have clashed. The official balance is between 300 and 400 dead, about fifty of them civilians.

• UNDERSTAND: The clashes involve a long-standing territorial dispute in the Caucasus

This balance, however, is highly skewed and can be much higher, as each side claims to have eliminated thousands of enemy soldiers. So far, several truce requests from the international community have been to no avail.

Furthermore, some 70,000 people, half of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, had to leave their homes because of the conflict.

On Thursday, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of bombing a historic cathedral in Shushi, a Nagorno-Karabakh city with an Armenian majority. The temple had already suffered severe damage in the war between the two countries in the 1990s.

Two Russian journalists were injured, one seriously, Armenian officials said. Azerbaijan has denied the attack and said the country “does not target buildings and monuments of cultural and, above all, religious value.”

See G1’s most viewed videos