Armenia and Azerbaijan have announced a "
humanitarian truce
" from midnight Saturday October 17, according to statements from the foreign ministries of the two countries.
"
The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan have agreed on a humanitarian truce from October 18 at 00:00 local time,
" said the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry confirming in an identical statement .
To read also: Nagorno-Karabakh: in the basements of Stepanakert, the fragile hope of a ceasefire
The French presidency welcomed the announcement, adding that this truce had been concluded "after a French mediation conducted over the last days and hours in coordination with the co-presidents of the Minsk group".
The French president had several times on the phone this Saturday the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian and the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev.
For a week, a first humanitarian truce agreement negotiated under the aegis of Moscow to end the conflict that began on September 27 between Azerbaijanis and Armenian separatists from Nagorno-Karabakh had never been applied.
Fear of an internationalization of the conflict
And Azerbaijan vowed on Saturday to “avenge” the death of thirteen civilians in the night bombing of Gandja, the country's second city, further escalation of the conflict.
In the evening, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by telephone with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts and insisted on "
the need for strict respect
" of the ceasefire concluded last Saturday in Moscow, according to the official. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Azerbaijan has achieved territorial gains over the past three weeks without winning a decisive battle.
Baku has so far not revealed the cost of the conflict, releasing no military, material or human toll.
The separatists claim to have killed thousands of men, admit having had to back down but claim to "
control the situation
".
Officially, they lost around 700 men, and half of the 140,000 inhabitants were displaced.
Besides a potential humanitarian crisis, the international community fears an internationalization of the conflict, Turkey supporting Azerbaijan.
Armenia, which financially and militarily supports the separatists, is in a military alliance with Russia.