MOSCOW — Azerbaijan and Armenia opened talks on Friday for a restricted cease-fire after virtually two weeks of fierce preventing over a disputed province, with the purpose of reaching a minimum of a pause lengthy sufficient to gather our bodies from the battlefield and to alternate prisoners.
However the prospects for a broader peace deal appeared dim after the Azeri president, Ilham Aliyev, said in a televised speech Friday that he was joyful to have talks however was making no concessions.
“We’re successful and can get our territory again and guarantee our territorial integrity,” Mr. Aliyev mentioned. “Allow them to abandon our territory in peace.”
The battle in and round Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, flared late final month and has threatened to spiral into a wider war drawing in Russia; Turkey, a NATO member; and presumably Iran.
The Russian International Ministry mediated the talks after President Vladimir V. Putin warned earlier this week that Russia might be compelled to uphold its mutual protection pact with Armenia if the preventing unfold.
“Ours is a tiny nation, hardly seen on the map, nevertheless it might be the beginning of gigantic battle,” Irina Grigoryan, a trainer of Russian literature who fled Nagorno-Karabakh every week in the past, mentioned in a phone interview on Friday.
After Ms. Grigoryan left with 5 grandchildren for the protection of Yerevan, the Armenian capital, an condominium the place among the kids lived was bombed, she mentioned. She mentioned she is hopeful the cease-fire will maintain.
“Can’t they cease the battle, a minimum of for a day or two?” she mentioned. “Any negotiation is best than battle.”
In nighttime phone conversations with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Mr. Putin instructed the restricted truce as a preliminary step. Mr. Putin invited each international locations’ international ministers to the talks in Moscow.
Mr. Putin “made an enchantment to halt fight underway within the space of Nagorno-Karabakh from a humanitarian perspective,” the Kremlin said in a statement. “The purpose is to alternate our bodies of those that died and prisoners. To seek the advice of on these questions with mediation by the Russian International Ministry” each side have been invited to Moscow, the assertion mentioned.
The battle in Nagorno-Karabakh has simmered for many years in a distant mountain area of little geostrategic significance, after a battle within the early 1990s resulted in a cease-fire however no wider settlement. That modified when Turkey, which has been flexing its muscles regionally in current months, brazenly backed Azerbaijan, its ethnic Turkic ally, in an escalation that started on Sept. 27.
Mr. Putin this week said that Russia would honor the protection settlement with Armenia if the preventing spilled onto Armenian territory fairly than the realm in and across the Nagorno-Karabakh area in Azerbaijan. That assertion raised the prospect of Russian intervention and was adopted by the enchantment for a truce to alternate our bodies and prisoners.
Armenia mentioned on Friday that 376 of its troopers had died within the preventing up to now. Azerbaijan has not been releasing physique counts.
The preventing carried on Friday even because the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian international ministers ready for the talks in Moscow.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Protection Ministry said the 2 armies exchanged artillery fireplace throughout the frontline in a single day Thursday and into Friday, and that populated areas on its territory have been hit.
Rocket artillery on Thursday hit the roof of the Holy Savior Cathedral, a cherished, 19th century Armenian cathedral within the hilltop city of Shusha, partially destroying it. The cathedral was additionally partially destroyed within the Nagorno-Karabakh battle within the early 1990s and subsequently restored.
Azerbaijani state information media reported shelling in two districts on Friday. The nation’s prosecutor normal mentioned Friday that for the reason that preventing began final month 31 civilians have been killed and 178 wounded by artillery fireplace.
The workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner on Human Rights issued a press release Friday condemning the violence spilling over into civilian areas. The fee estimated that as of Thursday 58 civilians had been killed, together with kids, whereas condominium buildings, colleges and different civilian buildings had been destroyed.
The assertion known as for the militaries to halt use of cluster munitions, which scatter small bombs over a large space and are significantly deadly to civilians. The preventing additionally risked spreading coronavirus, the assertion famous.
Michelle Bachelet, the commissioner, mentioned the warring sides wanted to “abide by the ideas of distinction, proportionality and precaution,” and to keep away from firing explosive weapons into populated areas.
