Nagorno-Karabakh: US-backed ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan crumbles as fighting resumes
- Two Russia-brokered truces have also failed to hold, in month-long conflict that has killed hundreds
- Each side blames the other for violating ceasefire agreement with new attacks
A US-backed ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh was in jeopardy on Monday as Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces renewed fighting in the mountain enclave, defying international efforts to end a conflict that has killed hundreds in the last month.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said in a televised address that he wanted to resolve the conflict “by political and military means” after both sides accused each other of breaking a truce agreed hours earlier in Washington.
Speaking live on Facebook later on Monday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he did not believe Azerbaijan was interested in a peaceful resolution to the conflict. “The Armenian people are ready for mutual concessions, even painful ones, but not for the capitulation of Karabakh,” he said.
The latest fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous part of Azerbaijan populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians, erupted on September 27 and is the worst in the South Caucasus since the 1990s. Two Russian-brokered ceasefires have failed to hold.
World powers want to prevent a wider war that might draw in Turkey, which voices strong support for Azerbaijan, and Russia, which has a defence pact with Armenia. The conflict, close to pipelines that carry Azeri oil and gas to international markets, has also strained relations between Ankara and its Natp allies.
A third ceasefire since October 10 was agreed on Sunday after separate talks in Washington between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.