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Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that Russia is ready to provide “necessary assistance” to Armenia, which faces a dispute with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region, should the fighting affect the Armenian territories.
The announcement by Russia, which has renewed its call for a ceasefire, came after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked President Vladimir Putin to initiate “urgent” consultations on the help Moscow could provide to Yerevan for ensure your safety.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, during their talks in Geneva on Friday, failed to agree on a new ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh, but agreed on measures to reduce tension, including a promise not to attack civilians.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zahrab Manatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Jihon Pirramov met face to face in the Swiss city, in an attempt to find a way out of this crisis that has claimed more than a thousand lives in just over a month.
French, Russian and US mediators meeting under the “Minsk Group” said, in a statement issued late Friday, that they urged the warring parties to implement an earlier ceasefire agreement.
The mediators added that the two parties to the conflict had a “frank and substantive exchange of views, in order to clarify their positions” in the negotiations on the conflictive points of the ceasefire agreement reached on October 10 in Moscow.
Two other ceasefire agreements were also reached, without committing to them.
According to the mediators’ statement, the two parties also agreed to “take a series of urgent measures.”
The statement stated that the two sides agreed to “refrain from deliberately targeting civilians or non-military targets”, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Likewise, the two parties to the conflict have agreed to actively participate in the recovery and exchange of mortal remains.
Prisoners of war
It is also imperative that the two neighboring countries submit, within a week, lists of prisoners of war to the Red Cross “to” give them access “and facilitate any” future exchanges “.
The two countries pledged to send comments and questions in writing as part of the discussions aimed at establishing mechanisms to verify the implementation of the ceasefire, an issue considered a priority in the talks.
“The heads of the (Minsk Group) will continue to work intensively with the parties (in conflict) to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict,” the statement said.
The meeting between the two foreign ministers was originally scheduled for Thursday, but has been postponed to Friday due to the resumption of fighting.
Carrie Kanafeh, former US ambassador who co-chairs the Minsk Group, tweeted: “Every day of delay in reaching a viable ceasefire increases the likelihood of a tragic increase in civilian casualties.”
Since the fighting began on September 27, Azerbaijani forces have reclaimed land that was beyond their control since the 1990s, when a war between the two sides broke out that left 30,000 dead and led to the secession of the region of Nagorno-Qara, inhabited by the majority of Armenians.
This region, which has the economic and military support of Armenia, declared its independence after the 1994 war, but was not recognized by the international community or by Armenia.
On September 27, armed clashes broke out between the Azerbaijani army and the separatists. So far, attempts to reach a truce have failed.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev confirmed this week that he is not against holding a new round of talks in Geneva, but downplayed them.
“A lot of useless meetings were held over the past 28 years,” he said.
And the partial results reported that more than 1,250 people, including more than 130 civilians, have died since the resumption of fighting, the worst since the war of the 1990s.
