Azerbaijan says to stop fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, separatists voice doubts
Azerbaijan said on April 3 it would stop fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region after two days of clashes, but the other side denounced Baku's gesture as hollow and said violence was continuing.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, has run its own affairs with heavy military and financial backing from Armenia since a separatist war ended in 1994.
But the situation along the tense "contact line" deteriorated in recent weeks, leading to clashes in which dozens were killed that drew international calls for an immediate ceasefire. Both sides also reported civilian casualties.
"Armenia has violated all the norms of international law. We won't abandon our principal position. But at the same time we will observe the ceasefire and after that we will try to solve the conflict peacefully," President Ilham Aliyev said at a security council meeting broadcast by Azeri state TV.
Aliyev also said Azeri troops had achieved a "great victory" in an apparent reference to territorial gains made on April 2.
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Armenian officials, however, said the fighting had not let up and Deputy Defence Minister David Tonoyan said his country was ready to provide "direct military assistance" to Nagorno-Karabakh forces if necessary.
"The statement by the Azerbaijan side is an information trap and does not amount to a unilateral ceasefire," Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesman for the Armenian Defence Ministry, said in a post on his Facebook page.
Russian news agencies reported artillery attacks by both sides near the town of Mardakert in the north of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Azeri Defence Ministry said earlier on April 3 it would "cease retaliatory military actions" against the separatist forces. The previous day it said the Azeri army had "liberated strategic heights and settlements" in the north and east of the region.
