Azerbaijan and Armenia truce comes into effect.
Image Credit: AP/Dmitri Lovetsky
After two weeks of fighting for the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an enclave in Azerbaijan, but controlled by ethnic Armenians, both countries agreed to a ceasefire that came into effect today, at 12pm local time. Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh region accused each other of targeting civilian areas in their shelling. It is believed that shortly before the truce came into effect, intense shelling and drone strikes were reported.
Azerbaijan Defense Ministry accused Armenia of launching a volley of rockets from the disputed region, directed at the town of Hadrut located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The town of Hadrut was captured by Azerbaijani forces during an offensive, but Armenians still claim that is controlled by them. Azerbaijan have also accused Armenia of shelling several Azerbaijani villages on Saturday morning. The Armenian Defense Ministry denied all accusations, and the Ministry spokesman Shushan Stepanyan said that Azerbaijan fired several missiles from combat drones on two villages in the Syunik region. Azerbaijan denied the accusation.
The truce was brokered by Russia, after 10 hours of talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia Foreign Ministers in Moscow, where the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov acted as a mediator. The meeting was finished early on Saturday, the same day that the truce had to take effect. Both countries agreed to cease fighting for ‘humanitarian’ reasons. The Red Cross will act as an intermediary in the humanitarian operation that started soon after the ceasefire. To read more about Nagorno-Karabkh region click on the following link:
https://whatnownews24.com/2020/09/27/clashes-reported-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan/
Russia’s top diplomat said,
The Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia under the mediation of OSCE Minsk group are starting meaningful negotiations to reach peaceful resolution based on the basic settlement principles as soon as possible.
Russia’s top Diplomat
Details of the ceasefire are still about to be released, but Russia FM said that,
Specific parameters of the ceasefire regime will be agreed separately.
Russian FM Sergei Lavrov
Both countries foreign ministers agreed to exchange prisoners and recover the dead. More details will be released soon. According to the military in Nagorno-Karabakh, 404 soldiers lost their lives since the conflict began on September 27th. Azerbaijan did not release any details of their losses.
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