Baku: Azerbaijan authorities on Friday accused Armenia of expanding the scope of the conflict that started with Nagorno-Karabakh and claimed that it was shelling various areas of Azerbaijan. Armenian authorities have however denied this claim.
Despite Russia’s attempts to reconcile, there have been mutual allegations and counter-allegations between the two sides in a fierce battle for nearly three weeks. This is the first battle between the two countries on such a large scale in nearly 25 years. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said that a missile fired by Armenian forces fell on Thursday in an area near Orduba in its Nakhchivan region. However, there were no casualties.
Armenian Defense Forces spokesperson Sushan Steppanian dismissed Azerbaijan’s claims that no missiles were fired in the Nakhchivan region. The region comes under the territory of Azerbaijan, but it has been controlled by Armenia-backed Armenian ethnic groups since 1994. Armenia calls it Artasakh. The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces began on September 27 over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in which hundreds of people have been killed.
Russia has a security agreement with Armenia but has also developed good relations with Azerbaijan. The agreement for the ceasefire was reached after the top diplomats of both the struggling countries met in Moscow for about 10 hours on Saturday.
However, the agreement did not last long after both sides accused each other of a ceasefire. Russian officials said Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting with his Security Council on Friday also discussed the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, among other issues.
