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At 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night, the AFP reporter at the scene reported that bombs had fallen on Nagorno-Karabakh, meaning that Azerbaijan had broken the ceasefire less than twelve hours after it started.
But already during the day, the parties have accused each other of violating the agreement.
The Armenian Defense Ministry earlier accused Azerbaijan of bombing a settlement in Armenia, and Armenian forces in Karabakh claimed that Azerbaijani troops had launched a new offensive five minutes after the ceasefire began.
Azerbaijan, for its part, claimed during the day that the Armenian forces in Karabakh had bombed Azerbaijani territory. Both parties have consistently denied each other’s claims.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told Russian RBK that the warring parties are now working to find a political solution, but hinted that further fighting is expected.
“We will continue to the end and take what is rightfully ours,” he said, according to Reuters.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said the ceasefire would only last as long as it took the Red Cross to obtain a replacement for the fallen. He also said that Azerbaijan hopes and believes in gaining control of more territory.
The violence that erupted in Nagorno-Karabakh has its roots in a far-reaching conflict. Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region that is formally part of Azerbaijan, has a predominantly Armenian population and is considered in practice as a separatist region protected by Armenia. The current fighting is the bloodiest since the war that ended in 1994 and killed some 30,000 people.
Even the negotiations that led to the apparently brief ceasefire on Saturday has been questioned by both sides. The Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Minister accused Azerbaijan of using the talks as a cover to prepare for a military offensive.
The ceasefire talks were held in Russia on Friday and were led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
France has also been involved and mediated between the parties. On Saturday, Jeyhun Bayramov accused France of not being neutral in the mediation. At a press conference, the Azerbaijani foreign minister said that France had violated the principle of neutrality, writes Reuters.
