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Destroyed parts of Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh in early October
Photo: Pablo Gonzalez / imago images / Eastnews
In the conflict over the Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the ceasefire negotiated on Saturday is apparently fragile.
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Sunday of ignoring the midnight ceasefire.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani artillery launched an attack on military positions in the enclave that night and fired twice.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense said the area around the city of Jabrail had been shelled with mortars and artillery.
Appropriate retaliatory measures were therefore taken.
The region's Ministry of Defense said the number of soldiers killed had increased to 673 since the fighting began in late September.
There are dead and wounded on both sides.
Azerbaijan announced on Saturday that 60 Azerbaijani civilians had been killed and 270 injured.
The leadership in Baku did not provide any figures on military losses.
The now broken "humanitarian ceasefire" should come into effect on Sunday at midnight local time.
The foreign ministries of both countries had announced this the day before in the same wording.
A week earlier, Armenia and Azerbaijan had agreed to a Russian-brokered ceasefire.
However, this was also broken several times shortly afterwards.
Both sides accused each other of violations and reported fights.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia of killing 13 civilians and injuring over 50 other people in the shelling of the city of Ganja.
Armenia, in turn, had accused Azerbaijan of sustained attacks.
Mostly Christian Armenians live in the region in the South Caucasus.
The leadership there is supported by the Armenian government in Yerevan.
Under international law, the area has belonged to the predominantly Islamic Azerbaijan, from which it renounced in 1991, since the Soviet era.
The current fighting began on September 27th and is the worst since the 1991-1994 war, in which around 30,000 people were killed.
Important natural gas and oil pipelines run through the South Caucasus.
Since Armenia is allied with Russia and Azerbaijan is supported by Turkey, the conflict threatens to spread beyond the region.
Icon: The mirror
ire / Reuters
