The fighting, the deadliest over Nagorno-Karabakh in over 25 years, is being watched closely abroad partly because of the proximity of the fighting to Azeri gas and oil pipelines and the risk of regional powers Turkey and Russia being dragged in, Reuters reports in its article Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire strained by recriminations, fighting reports that both Ankara and Moscow are under growing pressure to use their influence in the region to end the fighting.
The humanitarian ceasefire is meant to allow ethnic Armenian forces and Azerbaijan to swap prisoners and bodies of people killed in two weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians. But the ceasefire has frayed quickly. Azerbaijan said on Sunday it launched airstrikes against an Armenian regiment, following what it said was an Armenian rocket attack on an apartment building. On Monday, Azerbaijan's defense ministry said Armenian forces had tried to attack its positions around the Aghdere-Aghdam and Fizuli-Jabrail regions, and were shelling territories in the Goranboy, Terter and Aghdam regions inside Azerbaijan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia, which has a defense pact with Armenia, was monitoring the events and asked Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces to respect the ceasefire. Speaking before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Berlin, Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, urged Turkey to do more to end the latest flare-up of the decades-old conflict. "Turkey has not called for a truce yet, and I believe they are completely wrong with this position," Asselborn said. "I think the message from Luxembourg will be a call on Turkey, a NATO member, to help arrange a ceasefire quickly."
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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Monday that although not knowing when would the talks with Armenia begin, he wants Turkey to participate in the talks as well, Daily Sabah reports. Aliyev said the Minsk group, formed to mediate the conflict and led by France, Russia and the United States, was biased, and that Turkey, which he described as a global power due to its involvment Syria, Libya and other international conflicts, must be involved in the solution process. "Turkey is also a member of the Minsk group, why shouldn't it be among the co-chairs? Even if many Western countries do not want to accept it, Turkey's word is big, it's fully independent," he said.
