Military action halted after four days of fighting in Nagorny-Karabakh in which at least 64 people died

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Azerbaijan and Armenian separatist authorities in the disputed Nagorny-Karabakh region have reached an agreement to end four days of fierce fighting over the disputed territory, Baku and Karabakh rebels said.



“Military actions were halted as of 12pm local time (8am GMT) on Tuesday,” Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said in a statement.

“An agreement to cease fire has been reached with Azerbaijan,” a Karabakh defence ministry spokesman told AFP. “An order was given to stop shooting.”

An AFP photographer in the frontline Azeri town of Terter said both sides stopped shelling on Tuesday afternoon after a night of sporadic artillery fire.

The death toll from both sides since the clashes in the Caucasus erupted on Friday has reached at least 64, according to an AFP estimate based on official reports, the worst violence in decades over the disputed territory.

Both sides accused each other of starting the latest outbreak of violence. Azerbaijan claims to have captured several strategic locations in Armenian-controlled territory, in what would be the first change to the frontline since an inconclusive truce ended a war in 1994.



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Meanwhile, the so-called Minsk Group of the US, French and Russian ambassadors to the Organisation of the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that has long mediated in Karabakh peace talks, was to meet in Vienna on Tuesday for talks seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Armenian-backed separatists seized control of the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region, a majority ethnic Armenian area in Azerbaijan, in an early 1990s war that claimed about 30,000 lives.



The protagonists have never signed a peace deal despite a 1994 ceasefire, and sporadic violence regularly leads to the deaths of soldiers on both sides, though the latest outbreak represents a serious escalation in hostilities.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan, whose military spending exceeds Armenia’s entire state budget, has repeatedly threatened to take back the breakaway region by force.