Baku: On Sunday, Azerbaijanis and Armenian national forces broke out in the enclave of the Nagorno-Karabakh mountain, as the two sides accused each other of preventing the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Armenia accused Azerbaijani forces of shelling civilian settlements. Baku denied killing civilians and said that if Armenian forces withdrew from the battlefield, it was prepared to implement a ceasefire.
The weekend clashes took place in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan inhabited and controlled by Armenians. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosted the foreign ministers of the two countries under the new peace promotion on Friday.
The collapse of two Russian ceasefire agreements that broke out over Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27 has dimmed the prospects for a quick end to the fighting.
Local officials in Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijani troops of firing artillery shells at settlements in the Askelan and Martigny regions during the night. Azerbaijan stated that its positions were attacked by small arms, mortars, tanks, mortars and howitzers.
“I am absolutely confident in the effectiveness of the peace negotiations but this also depends on the will of the Armenian side to take part in them,” said Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.
“Why can Azerbaijani and Armenian people live together in Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries but not in Nagorno Karabakh?” he added in a Fox News interview that was reprinted by the state Azertag News Agency.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian accused Baku of “aggressive and destructive”.
The world’s powers want to prevent a wider war, which has aroused strong support of Turkey for Azerbaijan and Russia, which has reached a defense treaty with Armenia.
The differences in the conflict further exacerbated the relationship between Ankara and its NATO allies, and Pompeo accused Turkey of fueling the conflict by arming the Azerbaijani side. Ankara denies that it has intensified the conflict.
In a comment reprinted by the Armenius News Agency, Salxian called on “global participants” to immediately intervene to achieve a ceasefire.
“In the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russia is a trusted and pro-active mediator between the conflicting sides. Russia plays a crucial role here,” he said.
Aliyev said it was “very hazardous” for Armenia to want Russian military support in the conflict and third parties should not get involved militarily.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Vladimir Putin) has stated that he hopes the United States can help Moscow mediate a conflict resolution.
Russian news agency Interfax reported that the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry said on Saturday that the total number of Armenians killed in the fighting increased by 36 to 963.
Azerbaijan stated that 65 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and 298 injured, but it has not disclosed the casualties of its military personnel.
In the 1991-94 Nagorno-Karabakh War, about 30,000 people were killed. The Armenians regard the enclave as part of their historical homeland; the Azerbaijanis believe it is illegally occupied land and must be returned to them.
