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The Geneva talks aimed at reaching a truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday witnessed a further failure to agree a ceasefire in the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region, but agreed on measures to reduce tension, including a promise not to attack civilians.
Although it failed Armenia and Azerbaijan During their talks in Geneva on Friday, agreeing to a new ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, the two sides agreed not to attack civilians.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zahrab Mnatsakyanian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jehun Bayramov met face to face in the Swiss city, in an attempt to find a way out of this crisis that claimed more than a thousand lives in just over a month.
Minsk Group
French, Russian and US mediators meeting under the “Minsk Group” said, in a statement issued late Friday, that they called on the warring parties to implement an earlier ceasefire agreement.
The mediators added that the two parties in 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 being committed to them. According to the mediators’ statement, the two parties also agreed “to take a series of urgent measures.”
The statement clarified that the two sides agreed to “refrain from deliberately targeting the civilian population 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 remains.
The Prisoner Problem
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 submit 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.
Civilian victims
Carrie Kanafeh, former US ambassador who co-chairs the Minsk Group, tweeted “every day she was late in coming Stop the fire Applicable increases the probability of a tragic increase in civilian casualties.
Since the outbreak of fighting 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 region’s secession. from Nagorno-Karah, inhabited by the majority of Armenia.
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 its importance. “A lot of useless meetings were held over the past 28 years,” he said.
And the partial results indicated that more than 1,250 people have died, including more than 130 civilians, since fighting resumed, the worst since the war of the 1990s.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country often plays the role of arbiter and mediator in the region, said last week that the death toll was approaching 5,000.
France 24 / AFP
