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The city of Stepanakert, the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, controlled by Armenian separatists, was bombed on Saturday night, despite a truce that has theoretically been in place since morning.
Around 11:30 p.m. local time, seven loud explosions were heard that shook the entire city. Soon after, sirens sounded for several minutes, urging residents to go to basements and shelters.
The attacks came amid a truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which theoretically came into effect after the talks and under the auspices of Russia after two weeks of fierce fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Baku and Yerevan complain of ceasefire violations
According to the Athens and Macedonia News Agency, the Armenia and Azerbaijan have been accused of violating the ceasefire that came into effect during the day, following negotiations with Moscow, after almost two weeks of fierce fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers agreed, with Russian mediation, to a ceasefire after more than ten hours of talks that ended early Saturday in Moscow. This humanitarian truce is expected to allow the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of the victims.
Immediately after the ceasefire took effect, the Armenian Defense Ministry accused the Azeri forces of “launching an attack on 12.05. “Armenia is blatantly violating the ceasefire,” the Azerbaijani army responded.
The two sides also blamed each other for the attacks shortly after the agreement entered into force.
“They hate us”
Stepanakert, which has been bombed frequently in recent days, was bombed again this morning, but by noon the situation was calmer, save for some explosions somewhere far away. However, few believed in the possibility of maintaining a truce.
“We know the Azeris, we cannot trust them. They change in fractions of a second. This truce will not last. It is a ploy to save time,” said Livon, one of the few taxi drivers in the separatist capital. “However, both parties need a break.”
“I’ve lived in Azerbaijan for almost 20 years, these people hate us. We don’t believe in a truce, they just want to save time,” said Vladimir Barseghian, 64, a retired volunteer who works in a costume factory.
Many in Azerbaijan say they oppose the truce. In Baku, the 20-year-old student Sitara Mamedova is “disappointed”: “No to the truce! The enemy must leave our territory or be exterminated in our territory.”
In Barda, 40 km from the front, Murat Asadov agrees: “We must continue the war and take back our land.”
“Temporary truce”
According to a senior Azeri official, the calm is only “temporary”: “It is a humanitarian truce for the exchange of bodies and prisoners, it is not a real truce“stated that Baku “He has no intention of backing down” in his efforts to regain control of the region. “
At the time of the ceasefire announcement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, however, that the two camps were engaged in “substantive negotiations to quickly reach a peaceful settlement” of the conflict mediated by three co-presidents (France, Russia). OSCE Minsk.
These negotiations must “be repeated unconditionally”, insisted the representative of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anne von der Mill.
Today, Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rohani about Russia’s mediation efforts, according to the Kremlin.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also welcomed the ceasefire and said it was ready to facilitate the exchange of detainees and the bodies of victims.
The truce is “an important first step, but it will not replace a permanent solution,” said Turkish diplomats, a key Baku supporter. According to Ankara, Azerbaijan gave “the last chance for Armenia to withdraw from the territories it has occupied” and “showed Armenia and the world that it can regain its land.”
The fear is that this conflict will not internationalize in an area where Russians, Turks, Iranians and Westerners have interests. Especially as Ankara encourages Baku to continue the attack and Moscow is bound by a military treaty with Yerevan.
Turkey is accused of actively participating in hostilities with Azerbaijan, which Ankara denies. There are many reports of pro-Turkish fighters from Syria sent there to fight.
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