Azerbaijan/Armenia: Warring sides in Nagorno-Karabakh strike deal to safely recover their dead
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 8 April 2016 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Azerbaijan/Armenia: Warring sides in Nagorno-Karabakh strike deal to safely recover their dead, 8 April 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5768fff58.html [accessed 27 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
April 08, 2016
An ethnic Armenian soldier stands next to a cannon at artillery positions near the town of Martuni in Nagorno-Karabakh on April 8.
Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed separatists say they have agreed a temporary deal to allow each side to safely search for the bodies of their soldiers killed in clashes over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The warring parties agreed a cease-fire on April 5 after four days of shelling and artillery strikes that killed dozens.
It was the worst fighting since a 1994 cease-fire that stopped the conflict but did not resolve the underlying dispute.
The truce has largely held, though both sides have reported some violations.
On April 8, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry and the military leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh said they had sealed a deal to ensure there were no violations for a five-hour period later in the day to allow both sides to search for their dead.
Earlier, each side alleged the other had violated the truce in skirmishes overnight.
In a statement, the Armenia-backed separatist forces said two of its soldiers were killed along the "line of contact" that effectively serves as a front line separating the combatant sides.
The Armenian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said Azerbaijan shelled military and civilian targets inside Armenia.
Azerbaijan said it returned fire after Armenian forces shelled its positions in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile, has arrived in Azerbaijan for talks with President Ilham Aliyev.
"Russia, no less than Azerbaijan and Armenia, has an interest in there being peace in this region, our region," Medvedev said on arrival in Baku. "The cease-fire agreement is the foundation for unfreezing talks between Baku and Yerevan."
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mainly ethnic Armenian region inside Azerbaijan. Separatists there fought a war in the early 1990s to establish de facto control over the territory.
Based on reporting by Reuters, Interfax, AFP, and TASS
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
