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Source: Arab.net, agencies
Russia announced on Friday that Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to participate in negotiations in Moscow aimed at ending the fighting in Nagorno Karabakh, after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for it to take place, while a statement issued by the French presidency I expected the announcement of a truce this afternoon or tomorrow in Nagorno. Karabakh.
“Baku and Yerevan have confirmed their participation in the Moscow consultations,” said a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, adding that “preparations are under way” for talks scheduled for Friday, in which The foreign ministers of the two countries will participate.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Armenia declared himself ready to resume the peace process with Baku.
Meanwhile, a source on the Elysee said: “We are moving towards a truce tonight or tomorrow, but it is still fragile.” His comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Armenian Prime Minister Nicole Pashnyan on Thursday evening and with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday.
Emmanuel macron
This comes when the “Al Arabiya” correspondent quoted a European diplomat as saying that Turkey sent mercenaries to support the Azerbaijani forces. The European diplomat said that Turkey is the only foreign intervention in Nagorno Karabakh and ignores the Minsk group. He added that Turkey’s military intervention in Nagorno Karabakh had upset the balance of power on the ground.
The Al Arabiya correspondent also reported that 22 civilians were killed and 95 injured in the Nagorno Karabakh region, while the authorities in the region confirmed the attack on 5,800 public and private facilities. Meanwhile, the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities announced that the death toll among the military has risen to 376.
The exchange of bombings between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno Karabakh continued in the early hours of Friday morning, and twice in a few hours a cathedral with great symbolism, in negative sign that precedes the first international mediation meeting about this conflict in Geneva.
This coincided with the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers to Moscow on Friday for negotiations, the Kremlin announced Thursday night.
Of the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh
The Kremlin said in a statement that “on October 9, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia were invited to visit Moscow for consultations” with the mediation of the Russian Foreign Ministry. He added that the objective is to “stop the fighting,” with the aim of exchanging prisoners and the bodies of dead soldiers in particular.
The Kremlin added that “the Russian president calls for an end to the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh on humanitarian grounds, with the aim of exchanging the bodies of the dead and prisoners,” explaining that Putin had held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan.
The shelling of Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and populated areas of Azerbaijan continued throughout Thursday, according to local authorities.
In Shusha, 15 kilometers south of Stepanakert, a cathedral with a great historical symbol was bombed twice. Although the first bombardment left no casualties, in the second Russian and local journalists were injured, one of them seriously injured.
The Armenian government said journalists came to the scene “to inspect the remains of the attack in the morning” and said one of them was “about to undergo an operation.”
The cathedral was rebuilt in the 1990s after the first war in Nagorno-Karabakh, making it a symbol for Armenians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
In turn, the Azerbaijani army denied having bombed the site and emphasized that it was not targeting “historical and cultural buildings and monuments, especially religious ones.”
On the other hand, Azerbaijan accused the Armenian forces of “attacking populated areas” on its territory. Baku confirmed that two civilians were killed in these bombings, but several neighbors dismissed the idea of displacement, clinging to their position since the beginning of hostilities.
The bombing operations came as parts of the Misank Group, which includes Russia, the United States and France, were due to meet with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jihon Permov in Geneva.
Since the mid-1990s, the group has been trying to reach a solution to the conflict through negotiations, and a first war between the two sides left 30,000 dead in the period of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The meeting will be held in a closed manner, and there is a complete reservation on the date and place specified for it.
On the other hand, Armenian Foreign Minister Zahrab Manatsakyanian will be received in Moscow on Monday by his counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Paris expressed hope that the Geneva and Moscow meetings will lead to “starting negotiations.”
The official balance of the battles since September 27 reached 300 to 400 dead, including civilians, but these figures remain partial, since Baku does not announce its military casualties, and both sides confirm that the other has inflicted thousands of deaths between his soldiers.
The resumption of fighting raises fears abroad about the “internationalization” of the conflict in a region where the interests of Russia, Turkey, Iran and the West overlap, especially since Baku has the support of Turkey while Moscow has a treaty military with Yerevan.
Turkey has been accused of interfering in the conflict by sending teams and forces.
And Putin, who plays the role of arbiter in the region, warned that should the battles spread outside Karabakh to reach Armenia, Moscow would fulfill its “obligations” under its military alliance with Yerevan.
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