[ad_1]
Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of violating a “humanitarian truce”, which should have entered into force on Saturday at midnight, reports the BBC. The Armenians accused the Azeris of violating the armistice just 4 minutes after its entry into force by firing artillery and missiles. Azerbaijan, for its part, has accused Armenia of violating the agreement. Images of Azerbaijani soldiers captured by Armenian artillery while attacking the region appeared on social media.
This is the second time that the parties involved have tried to reach a ceasefire agreement after three weeks of clashes that have killed hundreds in Nagorno-Karabakh, Agerpres reports.
“The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan have agreed to a humanitarian truce starting on October 18, 00:00 local time,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said, and Azerbaijani diplomacy confirmed it in an identical statement.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees after three weeks of fighting
The announcement of the armistice came when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone overnight with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts and insisted on the “need for strict compliance” with the armistice concluded last Saturday in Moscow, according to diplomacy. Russian.
Azerbaijan has gained territory in these three weeks, but without winning the decisive battle. So far, Baku has not revealed the price of the conflict, nor has it published any military, material or human balance.
The separatists say they have killed thousands of people, acknowledging that they were forced to give up ground, but say they are “keeping the situation under control.” Officially, some 700 people were lost and most of the 140,000 inhabitants were displaced.
This is the bloodiest conflict in the region since the Six-Year War, which broke out in the late 1980s and ended with a ceasefire agreement signed by the two parties in 1994.
Editor: Mihnea Lazăr
