Nagorno-Karabakh. Breaking of the truce

1 Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenia of violating the temporary humanitarian truce, which was reached on 17th of October. The ceasefire took effect from the midnight of 18th of October. «The Armenian troops grossly violated the temporary humanitarian ceasefire at 00:02, on 18th of October. They fired on the settlements and combat positions of Azerbaijan from heavy artillery. As a result of those actions, there are dead and wounded. The Azerbaijani army gave the enemy a deceent response, and liberated several settlements from the occupation» — Aliyev said on Twitter. The Azerbaijani army, reportedly, took control of 13 villages in the Jebrail region of Karabakh. Earlier on Sunday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry stated that Azerbaijan twice violated the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.

2 Nagorno-Karabakh

The Defense Army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic reported on Facebook that in the morning, the Azerbaijani troops resumed the rocket and artillery attacks at the north and south of the frontline. «The situation during the night on the Artsakh-Azerbaijan frontine was mostly relatively tense. The artillery duels continued in some areas. In the morning, despite the ceasefire, the enemy forces resumed the rocket and artillery attacks in the northern and southern directions» — the statement concluded. It was noted that the army of the Unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic takes measures to suppress the enemy fire while controlling the operational situation. Earlier the State Service for Emergency Situations of the Unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic reported that at night, the Azerbaijani troops attacked the settlements of Karabakh.

3 Armenia

The Armenian President Armen Sarkissian stated in an interview to the newspaper »Kommersant» that Armenia will recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh if ​​it becomes clear that Baku won’t start a dialogue to resolve this problem. «The Armenian non-recognition of the independence is connected only with the fact that Armenia wants to resolve the issue via peaceful negotiations. If it becomes clear that Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey, won’t go through the negotiations — then Armenia will recognize the independence of Karabakh» — Sarkissian stated. In his opinion, if Azerbaijan won’t agree to the negotiations, then «this war may escalate into a completely different war. Roughly the same war as in Syria. It will be a much more tragic and a larger scale war» — Sarkissian concluded.

4 Armenia

The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated on Facebook that the frontlines in Karabakh are being fought over the status. Pashinyan underlined that Armenia could avoid the conflict if «Armenia surrendered its territories, and agreed to the indefinite status of Karabakh, for an indefinite period of time, in the absence of a mechanism for a correction of the status». According to the Armenian Prime Minister — the last opportunity to achieve an acceptable status for Nagorno-Karabakh was in 2011, in the city of Kazan, during the summit of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Back then the summit ended without an agreement on the basic principles of the settlement of the region.

5 Russia — Nagorno-Karabakh

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the parties of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, and other countries, to «immediately stop the escalation of the confrontational rhetoric». He underlined that after the adoption of 2 documents that didn’t allow to radically change the situation — it is necessary to create a mechanism for the monitoring of the compliance of the ceasefire. «We are actively working on this issue. It includes our Defense Ministry, and our colleagues from Azerbaijan and Armenia. I hope that such a mechanism will be agreed upon in the very near future» — Lavrov concluded.