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Sunday, 18 October 2020 (YJC) _ Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of violating a cease-fire just hours after it went into effect on October 18.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of violating a cease-fire aimed at stopping the fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, just hours after it went into effect on October 18.
A spokeswoman for the Armenian Defense Ministry said there had been rocket and artillery fire from the other side early on October 18.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry later accused Armenian forces of carrying out artillery and mortar shelling along the so-called Line of Contact that divides the warring sides.
The accusations came after Armenia and Azerbaijan said just hours earlier that they had agreed on the new cease-fire, posting identical statements on their respective Foreign Ministry websites late October 17. The halt in fighting took effect at midnight local time.
The October 17 statements said the decision was taken following statements earlier this month from the presidents of France, Russia, and the United States, representing the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
France, Russia, and the United States comprise the OSCE’s Minsk Group, a diplomatic initiative aimed at trying to resolve the conflict, which dates to 1988 in the waning days of the Soviet Union.
The latest round of fighting, which erupted on September 27, has killed at least 600 soldiers and civilians and is considered the worst since the 1994 cease-fire that ended all-out war between the two countries over Nagorno-Karabakh’s status.
Internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, the mountainous territory has been controlled by ethnic Armenians, backed by Yerevan, since the 1994 halt in fighting.
The latest spasm of violence has stoked fears that the new violence could engulf the region in a wider conflict involving Azerbaijan's biggest ally, Turkey, and Russia, which dominates the Collective Security Treaty Organization, of which Armenia is a member.
Source: rferl
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