Azeri-Armenian Fighting Undermines Russia-Backed Cease-Fire

Azerbaijan and Armenia said fighting continued in and around the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, undermining a cease-fire agreement Russia secured in overnight talks with the two former Soviet republics.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Armenians continued to fire on its positions to the south, east and northeast of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia’s Defense Ministry denied that and accused Baku of attacking. The armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, which initially ordered a halt to fighting, said in a Facebook post that they were “returning fire” from Azerbaijan in the south.

Moscow hosted the first talks between the bitter rivals to seek a halt to the worst fighting in decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, a landlocked region in the South Caucasus. The cease-fire was set to start at 12 p.m. local time to allow the sides to exchange prisoners and recover bodies of those killed in the fighting that flared up almost two weeks ago.

“Efforts are being made through all possible diplomatic channels to implement the cease-fire agreement,” Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan said on Facebook.

The cease-fire is a temporary measure, for humanitarian purposes only, Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said at a news conference in Baku. “Azerbaijan will not accept an imitation of talks” like those held in the past three decades, he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to start “substantive negotiations” to resolve the long-running territorial clash, according to a statement on its website early Saturday after more than 10 hours of talks.

Russia, France and the U.S. have failed to get the sides to sign a final peace deal since Moscow brokered a truce in 1994 to end a war that killed more than 30,000 people and displaced more than 1 million, the two sides haven’t signed a peace treaty.

As the meeting began Friday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned that it was the last chance to resolve the conflict. He had earlier vowed to continue the military campaign until Armenian forces agree to leave Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts that are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

“We’ll get our lands back, either through peace or war,” Aliyev said in a TV address to the nation Friday. “We want to do it peacefully. We’re giving Armenia one last chance.”

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Armenia says it’s defending Nagorno-Karabakh’s right to self-determination after the Armenian majority declared independence amid the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held the marathon negotiations with his Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts after intense fighting has killed hundreds and left a trail of devastation since the conflict reignited on Sept. 27. The warring sides had ignored repeated calls for a cease-fire by France, Russia and the U.S., which act as the so-called Minsk Group of mediators. Azerbaijan has said Turkey, which has backed it in the conflict, should be involved in mediation.

Armenia has accused Turkey of involvement in the fighting and of funneling extremists from Syria to join the combat on Azerbaijan’s side. Both Ankara and Baku have denied it’s taking part in the fighting or that Syrian militants are present.

“While the humanitarian truce for the exchange of hostages and bodies of those killed is an important first step, it won’t be the lasting solution,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, reiterating Turkey’s full support for Azerbaijan.

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian said in a Bloomberg TV interview Friday that he’d asked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to “put pressure on Turkey that they should not get involved.” Armenia won’t have “any other choice” but to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence if fighting continues, he said.

The latest attempt to restore a cease-fire came after Russian President Vladimir Putin held a series of phone talks with Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke to Aliyev and Pashinyan.

“Putin could no longer avoid intervening” in the crisis in Russia’s former Soviet backyard as Turkey asserted itself, said Vladimir Frolov, a foreign affairs expert in Moscow and former diplomat.

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