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Houses destroyed by Azerbaijani artillery in Stepanakert, capital of Nagorno-Karabakh region (October 7)
Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky / picture alliance / dpa
From 12 noon (local time), a laboriously negotiated ceasefire should apply in the embattled South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
However, just a few minutes after the agreement came into force, both parties to the conflict reported renewed fire.
"In disregard of the previously declared humanitarian ceasefire," the Azerbaijani armed forces launched an attack at 12:05 pm, the Armenian Defense Ministry said.
The army spokeswoman for Armenia, Shushan Stepanyan, said on Saturday that the neighboring country was ignoring the agreement, to which the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh would have to react with "appropriate measures".
Shortly before the ceasefire began, Azerbaijan had "hit civilian areas with rockets," wrote a representative of the self-appointed government of the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Twitter, according to the AFP news agency.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia of starting artillery fire on numerous locations.
All attacks have been averted.
The Armenian army "blatantly violated the ceasefire regime".
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense said that two residential areas were hit in the attack.
Despite mutual allegations, the region became quieter by midday, according to an AFP reporter.
Residents had dared to go back to their front doors after hiding from artillery fire for days.
France called for "strict" compliance with the ceasefire on Saturday.
This is the only way to create the "conditions for a permanent cessation of hostilities between the two countries," declared the Foreign Ministry in Paris.
France, together with the USA and Russia, heads the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which works for a peaceful solution to the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Foreign Office in Berlin on Saturday appealed to both sides to keep the ceasefire and "absolutely to avoid" further victims.
Little hope of a peace deal
The ceasefire agreement came about on Saturday night in Moscow after hours of negotiations under Russian mediation.
Hundreds of people have been killed on both sides since fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began in late September.
It is the fiercest fighting in the decades-old conflict since a fragile armistice was agreed in 1994.
It remains to be seen whether the renewed ceasefire, if it lasts, will bring long-term relaxation.
The Moscow declaration is actually without an alternative, said the Russian political scientist Arkady Dubnow on the radio station Echo Moskwy.
Both poor Armenia and oil-rich Azerbaijan did not have enough resources to keep the fighting going any longer.
That was the only reason why they both entered into negotiations.
"But it will be extremely difficult to get both of them to sign a real peace agreement," said Dubnow.
The fighting continued on Friday, the capital of the region, Stepanakert, was fired at with rockets, Azerbaijan said it had captured nine villages.
A total of 320 Armenian soldiers have been killed in Nagorno-Karabakh since the fighting began.
Azerbaijan has so far not provided any information about its own losses, but speaks of around 30 civilians dead.
There are thousands of refugees in the troubled region.
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Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev called the meeting in Moscow the "last chance" for a peaceful solution: Armenia must give up Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan lost control of the area in a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago.
Nagorno-Karabakh is now inhabited by Christian Karabakh-Armenians.
In the territorial conflict, Azerbaijan has the backing of Turkey.
Foreign mercenaries and fighters from jihadist groups from the war zones in Syria and Libya are also said to be involved in the fighting.
So far, however, there is no clear evidence of this.
Russia has diplomatic and economic ties with both of the former Soviet republics, but they are more intensive with Armenia.
Russia also has a military base there.
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bor / dpa / AFP
