Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict escalates, major cities shelled
Russia, america and France called on Monday for Armenia and Azerbaijan to consent to an "unconditional ceasefire" following the neighbours commenced shelling major cities within an escalation of their conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Separatist forces in Karabakh - an ethnic Armenian enclave that broke from Azerbaijan in the 1990s - reported firefights along the frontline and said the regional capital Stepanakert had again come under artillery fire.
Azerbaijan's defence ministry said Armenian forces were shelling several towns, like the country's second-largest city Ganja which was first hit on Sunday.
Increasing artillery fire on cities has raised concerns of mass civilian casualties in the conflict, which includes already killed at least 260 people.
Late on Monday, Russia, america and France - co-chairs of a mediation group - issued a brand new demand an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire," hoping they might succeed in calming the fighting after previous statements didn't have an impact on the floor.
The three countries' foreign ministers said in a joint statement that the escalating conflict including attacks allegedly targeting civilian centres "constitute an unacceptable threat to the stability of the spot."
"The ministers call once more upon the conflicting parties to accept an instantaneous and unconditional ceasefire," the statement said.
Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict and "serious casualties" with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and also called for an instantaneous ceasefire, the Kremlin said.
Neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia, which supports the breakaway region, has demonstrated any sign of backing down so far.
The Karabakh leadership said early in the day it had pulled back fighters in a few areas of the frontline "for tactical purposes", after Azerbaijan claimed separatist soldiers were fleeing their posts.
The clashes broke from Sept 27, re-igniting a decades-old conflict between your ex-Soviet neighbours over Karabakh and threatening to draw in regional powers Russia and Turkey.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have ignored international demands a ceasefire and a return to long-stalled negotiations on the spot.
In Armenia's capital Yerevan, people expressed support for his or her troops fighting in Karabakh.
The town hall installed a huge screen on one of the busiest squares in the location to broadcast patriotic songs and residents have taken to hanging flags in the streets.
"We will win, the entire world must hear that no-one can defeat the Armenian people, we are unbeatable," said 57-year-old Gayane Arshakyan.
Stepanakert, a city of 50,000 in the heart of the mountainous Karabakh province, has been under steady artillery fire since Friday, with residents cramming into underground shelters.
The separatists' foreign ministry said on Monday that shelling of Stepanakert had resumed at 6.30am (0230 GMT).
It released video of repeated bursts of heavy shelling and of debris from seriously damaged blocks of flats, claiming Azerbaijan had used cluster munitions.
Azerbaijan because of its part said Armenian forces were shelling the cities of Ganja, with a population of over 330,000, and Agjabedi, home for some 38,000, plus the towns of Beylagan, Barda and Terter.
Hikmet Hajiyev, an adviser to President Ilham Aliyev, accused the Armenians of "attacking densely populated civilian areas" and claimed that they had shelled Ganja's central market.
"Barbarism and vandalism. Sign of weakness and panic," he wrote on Twitter.
A lot more than 40 civilians have been reported killed on both sides.
The International Committee of the Red Cross on Sunday condemned the reports of "indiscriminate shelling and other alleged unlawful attacks using explosive weaponry in cities, towns and other populated areas."
A witness in Stepanakert told AFP the location had come under powerful artillery fire on Monday morning but that shelling had eased by mid-day.
The streets were largely empty, the witness said, with many persons taking shelter in basements.
Convoys of residents have fled metropolis for Armenian territory, with groups gathering in the border town of Goris searching for passage on to the capital Yerevan.
In a fiery address to the nation on Sunday, Aliyev set conditions for a halt to the fighting.
He said Armenian forces "must leave our territories, not in words however in deeds," give a timetable for a complete withdrawal, apologise to the Azerbaijani persons and recognise the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
"Nagorno-Karabakh is our land. We must go back there and we are carrying it out now," Aliyev said.
"Here is the end. We showed them who we are. We are chasing them like dogs."
Karabakh's declaration of independence from Azerbaijan during the collapse of the Soviet Union sparked a war in the early 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives.
Talks to resolve the conflict have made little progress since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.
Turkey is a solid ally of Azerbaijan, a fellow Muslim and Turkic country, and has been accused of dispatching mercenaries from Syria and Libya to become listed on the fighting. - AFP
