Russia said Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to meet in Moscow (Representation)
Moscow, Russia:
Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to their first talks on ending the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia said on Friday, as fierce clashes in the disputed region showed no signs of abating.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that senior diplomats from both countries are joining the talks in the Russian capital following a late appeal Thursday by President Vladimir Putin.
“Baku and Yerevan have confirmed their participation,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told AFP, adding that preparations were underway.
Armenian and Azerbaijani defense officials said fierce clashes continued overnight from Thursday to Friday and reported more civilian deaths after Putin announced the meeting in Moscow and called for a ceasefire. -fire for humanitarian reasons.
Fighting erupted between Armenian separatists and the Azerbaijani army late last month over the contested region in Azerbaijan which declared independence after a war in the 1990s.
Both sides rejected growing calls to end the fighting that claimed the lives of some 400 people, including dozens of civilians, and Azerbaijan said it was determined to seize the Armenian-majority province .
The Kremlin said on Thursday evening that following a series of calls with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin called for an end to hostilities in Karabakh “in order to exchange corpses and prisoners “.
Foreign ministers of the two countries have been invited to the Russian capital to negotiate an end to hostilities in talks brokered by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Kremlin said.
Diplomatic efforts to find a lasting solution to the decades-old deadlock have failed since a shaky ceasefire was reached in 1994.
Growing number of civilians
Putin’s announcement of talks in Moscow came shortly after international mediators from France, Russia and the United States launched their first efforts to resolve the fighting in Geneva.
The countries make up the “Minsk Group” which has sought a solution to the Karabakh conflict since the 1990s but failed to stop sporadic outbreaks of fighting, including the deadliest clashes in decades this month .
But the negotiations in Geneva went without Armenia, which refused to participate if the fighting continued, and there were no public statements following the closed-door talks.
Since the fighting resumed, both sides have accused the other of bombing areas populated by civilians and thousands of people have been displaced by the clashes.
The disputed region’s administrative center, Stepanakert, is strewn with large craters and unexploded ordnance after days of intermittent shelling but the city was quiet on Friday morning, an AFP journalist said.
Armenia on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of bombing the iconic Ghazanchetsots (Saint Savior) Cathedral, leaving a gaping crowd on its roof and several journalists injured.
Armenian human rights ombudsman Artak Beglaryan told AFP earlier this week that the resumption of fighting has displaced around half of Karabakh’s 140,000 residents and forced 90% of its wives and children to leave their homes.
Dozens of civilians have been confirmed killed and the Armenian side has admitted 350 military deaths, while Azerbaijan has not admitted any deaths among its troops.
Turkey’s strong support for Azerbaijan has sowed fear in the West that the conflict could degenerate into a full-fledged war involving Ankara and Moscow, which has a military treaty with Armenia.
Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron are among world leaders to denounce the reported deployment of pro-Turkish fighters from Syria and Libya to Karabakh and Iran this week, warned of “terrorists” who had joined the conflict since l ‘foreign.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
