Armenia said on Friday it would work with Russia, the United States, and France to renew the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh as the death toll rose on the sixth day of fighting against the Breakaway enclave in the South Caucasus.
Azerbaijan, which is fighting the ethnic
Armenian army in Nagorno-Karabakh, did not respond to calls for a ceasefire
from the three countries on Thursday - the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-president, who mediated in the
crisis.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on
Tuesday rejected talks with Armenia on Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan's ally
Turkey said on Thursday that the three major powers should have no role in the
peace process.
"Obviously, Armenia is not interested
in resolving the conflict through negotiations and is trying to annex the
occupied territories," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a
statement that he had spoken on the phone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
and Azerbaijan's Aliyev and suggested a new way to resume talks within the
Minsk group. ۔
Macron said work would begin on Friday
evening, as he stepped up mediation efforts in his role as co-chair of the OSCE
Minsk Group.
The Armenian government said Pashinyan and
Macron agreed that any use of foreign fighters and terrorists in the conflict
was unacceptable, and Macron called for an immediate ceasefire.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each
other of using foreign mercenaries in military operations.
Pashinyan also spoke with Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
On the third phone call six days after the
fighting began, Putin and Pashinyan expressed grave concern about the Kremlin's
designation of illegal armed groups in the Middle East.
Putin immediately reiterated the need for
a ceasefire.
A senior US diplomat for the region,
Philip Ricker, will visit Turkey on Saturday to discuss the situation in the
Caucasus and other issues.
More fighting was reported’ overnight and
throughout Friday. Nagorno-Karabakh's Ministry of Defense has reported 55 new
military deaths, bringing the total number of casualties among its troops to
147.
Sell out
Eleven civilians were killed’ and at least
67 were injured’ in the mountain enclave, which is part of Azerbaijan but is
mostly run by ethnic Armenians.
The Azerbaijani prosecutor's office said
20 civilians had been killed’ and 55 wounded so far in the Armenian shelling.
Azerbaijan has not reported any casualties in its troops.
The OSCE called for an immediate
humanitarian ceasefire to repatriate the remains of the fallen soldiers.
Clashes broke out between Azerbaijani and
ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday. The enclave has not been
recognized’ internationally as independent, and has been the subject of
controversy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The fighting, which has killed more than
30,000 people since the war in the 1990s, has deepened concerns about stability
in the South Caucasus, a region where pipelines supply Azeri oil and gas. Are
taken’ to world markets.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a
meeting in Brussels that EU leaders discussed the crisis and called for an
immediate ceasefire.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the
country was "committed to resolving the dispute through peaceful
means."
"We will continue to strongly repel
Azerbaijan's aggression, but at the same time, we are ready to engage with the
co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group on the 1994-1995 ceasefire," he said. The
first ceasefire.
On Thursday, Turkish President Tayyip
Erdogan said a lasting ceasefire was possible only if the "Armenian
occupiers" withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh. Aliyev says Armenia's demands
for Nagorno-Karabakh are unacceptable.
"Everyone is affected ..."
Pashinyan told U.S. National Security
Adviser Robert O'Brien by telephone that a ceasefire would be impossible unless
"mercenaries and terrorists" were removed’ from Nagorno-Karabakh.
France has accused Turkey of sending
Syrian troops to small towns and Russia has expressed concern over the alleged
deployment of fighters from Syria and Libya. Turkey and Azerbaijan have denied
the allegations.
Each side accused the other of launching
new attacks on civilian targets on Friday, including firing across their common
border west of Nagorno-Karabakh.
NAGORNO - The ongoing war against Karabakh
will threaten the integration of regional powers Russia, which has a military
base in predominantly Christian Armenia and Turkey, which it says will side
with Muslim Azerbaijan in particular.
Ordinary citizens of the region are
increasingly worried.
Cahanquba Quliyeva, a 28-year-old
architect in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, said she feared her husband and
brother would be called in’ to fight. "We've only seen it in movies. And
now we're going through it in real life," he said.
Edward Wilson, a 30-year-old food
technologist in Yerevan, said: "This is a full-scale war right now. If we
give them Karabakh, they will demand Armenia next time."
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