Another Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire fails: Warring parties trade bitter accusations over who violated latest US-brokered truce
Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of violating a Monday truce in Nagorno-Karabakh, with heavy artillery fire. Reports of renewed hostilities came after a fresh attempt to reach a ceasefire was announced in Washington.
The Defense Ministry in Baku said that Yerevan's forces had “violated the new humanitarian ceasefire” on Monday by shelling its positions in several locations.
Despite the announcement of a new humanitarian ceasefire regime since October 26 at 08:00, the Armenian armed forces again grossly violated the agreement.
— Azerbaijan MOD (@wwwmodgovaz) October 26, 2020
The statement came just minutes after a new ceasefire – the third one agreed so far – was supposed to take effect at 8am local time. It was announced in Washington after Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, met the US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the army of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic denied the accusations by the Azerbaijani side. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on social media that his country is observing the ceasefire.
At the same time, the Armenian Defense Ministry's spokesman, Shushan Stepanyan, said that Azerbaijani artillery began firing at the positions of the Yerevan-backed Nagorno-Karabakh forces “grossly violating the ceasefire agreement.” Azerbaijan, in turn, insisted it is following the truce.
Grossly violating the ceasefire agreement reached in the #USA, starting from 8.45 a.m. today #Azerbaijani armed forces opened artillery fire at the positions of #Artsakh’s Defense Army in north-eastern direction
— Shushan Stepanyan (@ShStepanyan) October 26, 2020
Armenia and Azerbaijan had previously agreed to end hostilities on October 10, after talks in Moscow, and again on October 17. Both attempts at a ceasefire quickly fell apart, as the rivals immediately accused each other of violating the agreements.
The simmering conflict between Yerevan and Baku escalated into a full-blown war on September 27. The fighting is concentrated around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly Armenian-populated enclave within internationally recognised Azerbaijani borders. The Yerevan-backed region unilaterally broke away from Baku’s control following a bloody war in the early 1990s. As a result, Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of “occupying” a large chunk of its lands and is calling for the end to the “occupation.”
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