Azerbaijan and Armenia have dealt with Russia over allegations of ceasefire violations following an inhumane agreement reached in overnight talks with two former Soviet republics.
Azerbaijan's
Defense Ministry says Armenians continue to fire on positions in the south,
east and northeast of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenia's Defense
Ministry has denied the allegations and accused it of attacking Baku, while the
armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh said in a Facebook post that they were
"retaliating" with Azerbaijan in the south.
Moscow
held its first round of talks with bitter rivals to try to prevent the worst
fighting in decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory in the South Caucasus.
The ceasefire was to begin at 12 noon. Local time
After
more than 10 hours of talks, the Russian military's foreign ministry said in a
statement on Saturday that Armenia and Azerbaijan had "concrete
talks" to resolve the long-running regional conflict and set parameters
for a ceasefire. Will start. The two sides agreed to exchange prisoners and
recover the bodies of those killed in the fighting, which erupted about two
weeks ago.
As
the meeting began, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned that this was the
last chance to resolve the conflict. Earlier, they vowed to continue the
military operation until the Armenian forces agreed to leave Nagorno-Karabakh
and the surrounding seven districts, which are internationally recognized’ as
part of Azerbaijan.
"We
will get our land back through peace or war," Aliyev told the nation in a
televised address on Friday. We want to do it in peace. We are giving Armenia
one last chance.
Armenia
says it has been defending Nagorno-Karabakh's right to self-determination since
the Armenian majority declared independence during the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held marathon talks with his Azerbaijani and
Armenian counterparts on September 27, leaving a trail of hundreds of people
killed and destroyed in fierce fighting following the fall of the conflict. The
warring parties have repeatedly ignored France's call for a ceasefire. Russia
and the United States, the so-called Minsk group of mediators, have accused
each other of targeting civilians. Azerbaijan called on Turkey, which has
backed it in the dispute, to join the mediation.
Armenia
has accused Azerbaijan of fighting Turkey to join the fight and inciting
extremists from Syria. Both Ankara and Baku have denied taking part in the fighting
or the presence of Syrian militants.
Reiterating
Turkey's full support for Azerbaijan, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a
statement on Saturday, "Although the humanitarian agreement is an
important step in the exchange of hostages and bodies of the dead, it is a
lasting solution. It won't happen. "
Armenian
President Armen Sarkissian said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Friday that he
had asked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to "put pressure on
Turkey not to join." He said Armenia had "no other choice" but
would recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's independence if the fighting continued.
The
latest attempt to restore the ceasefire comes after Russian President Vladimir
Putin spoke on the phone with Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke with Aliyev and Pashinyan.
Vladimir
Frolov, a foreign affairs expert and former diplomat in Moscow, said, Putin
could no longer avoid interfering in Russia's former Soviet backyard crisis.
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