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Azerbaijan announced that Armenia must withdraw its forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh region to end the conflict, after the United States, Russia and France called for a ceasefire.
“If Armenia wants to stop the escalation of the situation, the ball is in its court,” Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign aide to the Azerbaijani president, told an online press conference on October 2. “Armenia must stop its occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Enough is enough.”
Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces broke out on September 27 around the Nagorno-Karabakh area. About 200 people, including many civilians, died in the fighting despite the international community calling for a ceasefire.
Azerbaijani artillery shells fired at Armenian forces around the Nagorno-Karabakh area on September 28. Image: BQP Azerbaijan.
In a joint statement on October 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to return to negotiations to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh issue.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry today expressed its willingness to cooperate with the mediation group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to seek a way to end the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. However, Armenia said that it cannot start negotiations unless the fighting stops.
The Nagorno-Karabakh area. Graphics: RFE / RL.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a province of Azerbaijan, but the majority of the local population is Armenian, who is a minority and always tries to separate from Azerbaijan to annex with Armenia. Much of the Nagorno-Karabakh region is now controlled by pro-Armenian separatists.
The dispute for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region erupted into a six-year war between Azerbaijan and Armenia from February 1988 to May 1994. Despite the truce in 1994 and many subsequent peace negotiations, the conflict continued being sporadic.
Nguyen tien (Follow AFP)
