Armenia and Azerbaijan accused others of violating a new “humanitarian truce” in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, controlled by Armenia, early Sunday morning.
The agreement entered into force here at (20:00 GMT on Saturday) on Sunday.
Russia and France said they had intervened in mediation to end the most recent escalation of violence in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.
Shushan Stepanyan, spokesman for the Armenian Ministry of Defense, said on Twitter that Azerbaijan fired artillery shells and rockets in the early hours of Sunday.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence subsequently accused Armenia of not practicing the truce.
The agreement, red on Saturday, a week after a failed truce negotiated through Russia, which also saw the parties to the conflict accuse others of violations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called his Armenian and Azeri counterparts hours before the truce was announced, his ministry said, urging both sides to sign the negotiated agreement in Moscow last week.
France also issued a post-Saturday announcement, saying it was following “French mediation . . . coordination with the co-chairs of the Minsk Group (Russia and the United States). “
The Elysus’ communiqué also called on both sides to “strictly” respect the truce, adding that “France will pay close attention to it and remain committed to a lasting end to hostilities and an immediate start to credible negotiations. “
The announcement of the truce came hours after Azerbaijan accused Armenia of committing a war crime by exhausting a missile attack on its present-day city of Ganja, a rate repeated in Turkey’s ally.
Armenia denied the duty of the attack, which left thirteen civilians, adding two young men, killed and dozens wounded.
Images distributed through Azerbaijan showed survivors’ rescuers under destroyed houses, adding the use of tracking dogs. Authorities talked about major damage.
On Saturday, the EU condemned the attacks on Ganja and said the initial ceasefire agreement “must be a completely legitimate delay. “
“Any attack on civilians and civilian services through either aspect will have to be stopped,” said a spokesman for EU foreign chief Josep Borrell.
Armenia, for its part, reported rocket attacks from Azerbaijan, adding that it opposed Stepanakert, the main city of Nagorno-Karabakh, which wounded at least 3 civilians.
On Twitter, the Armenian government’s claim that it shot down an Armenian Su-25 aircraft over the Jebrail region, which borders Nagorno-Karabakh, is “disinformation. “
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence previously said it had made additional progress on the front line, putting several villages and a city under its control.
The disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a plot of mountainous and densely wooded land, is at the center of decades of armed stagnation between Armenia’s neighbors and Azerbaijan.
Home to some 145,000 people, Nagorno-Karabakh is controlled by ethnic Armenians supported throughout the Republic of Armenia, but is identified as a component of Azerbaijani foreign law.
Azerbaijan lost the region in a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago and a fragile ceasefire had been established since 1994.
Thousands more have fled the area, basically inhabited by ethnic Armenians, since fighting resumed on 27 September.
Nagorno-Karabakh has reported nearly 700 army deaths.
Azerbaijan has not provided data on the losses of its armed forces, but says more than 50 civilians have been killed in Armenian attacks.
Bernard Smith of Al Jazeera, reporting from Yerevan, the Armenian capital, said Armenia had pushed for the last break.
The Armenian government is under enormous pressure due to the large number of casualties and the loss of territory, he said.
“The Azeri have taken, as we perceive, a territory that is necessarily in the buffer zone between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. It is a territory that Armenia has controlled since the 1994 ceasefire. Armenia considers it a buffer zone, an area, however, it is an Azeri territory. And for at least 26 years, both sides intended to have negotiated the long-term of this territory, as well as Nagorno-Karabakh,” Smith said.
The Azeri say that after 26 years nothing has been done, there has been no solution on what to do with this territory, and that is why with those in Turkey they have acted militarily and controlled to gain ground. Hence the enthusiasm of the Armenians to press for a ceasefire”.
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