Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: Fresh shelling breaches fragile ceasefire

Fresh fighting has been reported between Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed forces in and around the disputed South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, with both sides accusing each other of violating a humanitarian ceasefire that came into force two days ago to put the plug on 25 days of fighting in the region.

Overnight clashes continued into Monday morning, according to reports which said the sounds of shelling were heard in Karabakh's main city of Stepanakert.

Reports said Armenia backed-forces attacked the Azeri town of Barda, not far from the front line, on Monday.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Armenian forces were not complying with the Russian-brokered ceasefire that came into force after two weeks of fighting on Saturday.

The agreement to pause hostilities in order to exchange prisoners and the bodies of people killed was approved by Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in marathon talks in Moscow on Friday.

Russia hosts Armenia-Azerbaijan talks on Nagorno-Karabakh

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and his Azeri counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, meet in Russia’s capital, Moscow, for the first time since the eruption of the deadliest fighting between Armenian and Azeri troops in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in more than two decades.

The talks were the first diplomatic contact between the two former Soviet republics since the recent fighting over the mountain enclave broke out late in September.

About 500 people have been reported killed since then.

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said on Monday, "Armenian armed forces, which did not comply with the humanitarian truce, repeatedly tried to attack the positions of the Azerbaijan army.”

It said Azeri forces had destroyed a "large number of enemy forces" as well as one T-72 tank and three Grad multiple rocket launchers.

The ministry further said that Armenian forces had tried repeatedly to attack Azerbaijan positions around the Aghdere-Aghdam and Fizuli-Jabrail regions, and were continuing to shell territories in the Goranboy, Terter and Aghdam regions inside the country.

Armenia, for its part, accused Azerbaijan of "intensively shelling the southern front," according to defense ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan.

She said that "the adversary suffered great losses of manpower and military equipment," without providing further details. 

In the meantime, officials from the separatist government of the disputed Karabakh region said their forces had inflicted losses on Azeri forces and that large-scale military operations were continuing in the Hadrut area of the region.

Russia-brokered ceasefire still being violated in disputed Karabakh

While Baku and Yerevan have reaffirmed their commitment to a Russia-brokered cessation of hostilities, there are still reports of fresh clashes between the two sides which dent hopes of a lasting ceasefire.

Later in the day, Armenia Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, who held talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, said that Yerevan kept "receiving information that Azerbaijan is not complying with its obligations regarding the ceasefire.”

“With that in mind, I would like to stress the importance of introducing verification mechanisms that will help ensure that the ceasefire is being upheld," he said at a joint press conference with Lavrov.

He claimed that the Azeri air force had attacked more than 120 towns and villages in the Karabakh, including the region's largest city — Stepanakert.

The Russian diplomat also confirmed that the Karabakh ceasefire was not being fully complied with.

“An important agreement was reached at the initiative of [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin,” said Lavrov.

“We see that this agreement is not yet fully implemented, as combat activities continue," he added.

Russia, a close ally to Armenia, has formerly warned that the fighting could turn the disputed region into a launch pad for terrorists, who could threaten the country's security. 

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A high-ranking Russian official warns that the Nagorno-Karabakh region could become a launch pad for terrorists to enter Russian territory.

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it is held by ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Armenia since 1992 when they broke from Azerbaijan in a war that killed some 30,000 people.

In 1994, a ceasefire was put in place and France, Russia and the US — known as the “Minsk Group” — were tasked with finding out a lasting resolution to the conflict. 

But for decades, the group has failed to stop sporadic outbreaks of fighting and implement four UN resolutions which demand that military forces leave the occupied territories and hand them over to Azerbaijan.

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