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Stepanakert was also bombed last night, the AFP correspondent reported.
The capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been repeatedly bombed during the 13-day war between local Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan. Hundreds of buildings have been totally or partially destroyed.
Last night, the militants agreed to a truce to exchange prisoners, but they also promised to hold in-depth talks to resolve their territorial disputes.
Despite the truce, sporadic skirmishes continued for much of the afternoon and night, except for a few hours of calm.
Earlier today (10.10 bp), Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of new attacks in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This is despite a ceasefire agreed with Russia at 10am today (10.10pm).
Despite the announced truce, the Armenian armed forces continue to attack the Azerbaijani army positions, as well as the settlements. This was announced in a briefing by Hikmet Hajiyev, adviser to the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. Hajiyev threatened that if Armenia continued the provocations, Azerbaijan would use its right to self-defense and give an “adequate response”. The representative of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, in turn, accused Azerbaijan of continuing the shelling on the territory of Armenia.
I will remind you that the trilateral talks in Moscow between the foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan lasted more than 10 hours, from yesterday afternoon until today at dawn. After its completion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the signed agreement:
“A ceasefire is announced as of 12 noon on October 10, 2010 for humanitarian purposes for the exchange of prisoners of war and other detainees and the bodies of those killed in mediation and in accordance with the criteria of the Committee International Red Cross “. of the fire will be coordinated even more. “
Lavrov added that Baku and Yerevan will enter into direct talks aimed at soon achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict. As well as that the parties recognize the invariability of the existing negotiation format.
France has called on participants in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to adhere to a ceasefire agreed to tonight in Moscow.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani sides exchanged accusations of violating the truce. An AFP correspondent confirmed that several explosions had been reported in the Stepanakert area after 12 noon, when the fire was supposed to cease.
A spokeswoman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Yerevan and Baku to start talks on a peaceful solution to the territorial dispute, without preconditions.
But Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov has accused France of violating the principle of neutrality, despite presiding over the mediators of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has spoken out against the intervention of “third countries” in the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh.
That would “harden” and “expand” the conflict, Rohani warned in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The Iranian leader has expressed concern about the presence of “certain terrorist groups” in Nagorno-Karabakh, which according to Rohani could be dangerous for both Iran and Russia.
A few days ago, the Russian side accused Turkey of transferring mercenaries from northern Syria to help its ally Azerbaijan. According to Russia’s foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin, the mercenaries include Kurdish extremists and jihadists from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group.
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